Stage Number: MBNH.11.03.01
Group: Northern
Local Study Area: Chermside-Wavell Heights-Kedron-Nundah
Epoch: Early 19th Century
Street Address: Shaw and Mercer Parks along Kedron Brook from Kedron High School to Collins Street
Latitude & Longitude: -27.40622222,153.04786111
Time Link: 1823
Map Link: 1891
Image Time Point: 1891
A large and significant Aboriginal Camp on the crossroads of several pathways north, east and west of Brisbane, featuring an important Waterhole (still present). This Camp was much involved with the German Mission. Although destroyed in a police punitive raid in 1858, it revived and continued as one of the main homes for Aborigines working in this area of Brisbane well into the 1890s. Finally abandoned or emptied of residents some time after 1904, it was temporarily resumed as a ‘shanty town’ with 56 families – mixed Aboriginal and impoverished white residents – in the 1940s-1950s. Mercer and Shaw Parks hold a number of plaques honouring Reconciliation, Sorry Day and the Stolen Generation. Famous visitors during the 1840s-1890s included Yilbung, the ‘Duke of York,’the orator Dalapi, Captain Piper (bushranger), King Johnnie Boat and Sambo.
Ray Kerkhove, 2015, Aboriginal Campsites of Greater Brisbane (Salisbury: Boolarong), 54.
QSA Series 1748 Moreton District, County of Stanley Maps – A1 Series. 1 mile to the inch. Queensland Census Districts. 1 mile to the inch. Government Engraving Office, Brisbane. 620650
