Stage Number: MBNH.09.01.05
Group: Old Town & River
Local Study Area: Brisbane City (CBD)
Epoch: Early 19th Century
Street Address: Roma Street Parkland
Latitude & Longitude: -27.46305556,153.01930556
Time Link: 1823
Map Link: 1854
Image Time Point: 1854
Most important Aboriginal Tournament site on northside Brisbane. After Bora initiation, this was the usual venue where youths were tested for their skills as warriors through staged battles. Many hundreds of people – groups from all over the Moreton region – visited to attend Tournaments here. It was in use during the 1830s-1860s. In 1971, it was here that the only Australian continguent of the Black Panthers – a radical black rights group – took their protest from South Brisbane to here, resulting in many arrests and sparking the Canberra Tent Embassy. Ever since that event, Roma Street forum has been the usual location for Aboriginal demonstrations and protests.
Ray Kerkhove, 2015, Aboriginal Campsites of Greater Brisbane (Salisbury: Boolarong), 99-101.
QSA. QSA Series ID 4314, Survey Plans, Charts and Maps of Moreton Bay Settlement and Queensland. 4 chains to the inch. Plan shewing the alignment of . streets in North and South Brisbane, ca 1854. 4 chains to an inch. 714424
