First Nation People
Prior to British colonialisation, the Lamington region had been inhabited by First Nations people of the Yugambeh language for thousands of years. The Yugambeh group inhabited the Gold Coast and hinterland, roughly between the Logan and Tweed rivers.
This group lived as distinct family tribes in various regions, although interaction between them was well established. The family tribes that lived closest to Lamington National Park are the Birinburra, Kombumerri, Wangerriburra and Migunberri people.
The Yugambeh people worked in harmony with their environment. They understood seasons, plants and animals and used these to provide a comfortable lifestyle. They were able to feed a large group with just a few hours walk a day. Trading of food was well established between First Nation groups.
The Yugambeh people monitored plant and animal resources to ensure that food gathering was both efficient and sustainable. They gathered nuts, honey and other plant material, perhaps even planting many of the nut trees that grow today.
Using an assortment of weaponry, they hunted a wide variety of species. Nets were used to catch fish, flighted birds, land fowl along with land animals to the size of a kangaroo. Dingoes were trained to aid in the hunting of wallabies and kangaroos.
Social gatherings such as corroborees were well attended, attracting visitors from as far as Grafton, Tenterfield and Maryborough. These corroborees were held for a variety of reasons, for example, dances, initiations, feasts, fights and tournaments.
Ornate body decorations were often worn to corroborees and included feathers, paints, leaves, flowers, animal skins and tails. Although these gatherings could be highly ritual occasions, there was always one or two men “funny men” amongst the dancers that would provide everyone with entertainment from their antics (similar to the modern day circus clown).
After British colonialisation, the lives of the Yugambeh people were changed forever. Various attacks of native lifestyle by convicts, free landholders, Government acts and other British intervention has meant that today much of the previous way of life of the Yugambeh is forgotten. However, many First Nations people are still active in attempted to preserve what still remains, such as the Yugambeh language, and ensuring it can be passed on to future generations.
British Colonialisation
Captain Patrick Logan and Allan Cunningham were the first British explorers in the area. The timber cutters soon followed, including the Lahey family who owned one of Queensland’s largest timber mills at the time.
Between 1863 and1866 a survey of the Queensland/NSW border was carried out by surveyors Francis Roberts and Isaiah Rowland, who had to define the border along the highest points in dense rainforest where there were very few clear lines of sight. First Nation people assisted the surveyors.
By the 1870s, a battle had developed between those seeking to clear more land and those wanting to preserve valuable areas of southern Queensland’s subtropical rainforest. Timber-getters spearheaded the onslaught in the search for cedar—‘red gold’. Agriculturalists followed, eager to farm the rich soil where rainforests had thrived.
In 1878, the dream of Lamington National Park began, after local identity Robert Collins learned that the world’s first national park, Yellowstone, had been declared in 1872. Collins became an expert on the McPherson Ranges and fought for the mountains and their grand forests to be conserved.
By the century’s end, most of the red cedar, crows ash and white beech trees had been harvested from the area surrounding what is now Lamington National Park, and the coastal lowland rainforest had been destroyed. Fortunately, other forces were gathering and other interests slowly gaining voice. A 20-year battle to conserve the precious rainforest remnants of the McPherson Ranges was underway.
Robert Collins campaigned heavily for the protection of the area from logging during the 1890s. He entered state parliament and saw a bill passed that preserved state forests and national parks, but he died before the McPherson Range was protected.
Later, another local, Romeo Lahey recognised the value of the forests and campaigned to make it one of the first protected areas in Queensland. The O’Reilly family established a guesthouse near the park in 1926, now named O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, and founding members of the National Parks Association of Queensland built Binna Burra Lodge next to the park in the 1930s. Lamington National Park was established in 1915. The park was named after Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1902.
In 1937, Bernard O’Reilly became a hero when he rescued the survivors from the Airlines of Australia airliner “City of Brisbane”, which had crashed in the remote Lamington wilderness in wild weather. In typical Australian bushman fashion he embarked on his rescue mission taking only onions and bread to eat. Only a small portion of the original wreck remains today, 10 km (6.2 miles) south of the O’Reilly’s guesthouse.
Park Significance
Some 120 million years ago, Gondwana began to break up. The land masses of South America and Africa separated first. Madagascar and India followed. Australia remained attached to Antarctica until about 65 to 70 million years ago.
Several large volcanoes were formed as the Australian land mass drifted northwards over a stationary ‘hot spot’ deep below the Earth’s crust. Two of these were in the Lamington region, erupting about 20 to 23 million years ago.
The Focal Peak shield volcano near Mount Barney was the first but its lavas were later overlapped by flows from a huge volcano centred over present-day Mount Warning. This Tweed shield volcano erupted numerous times, spewing masses of molten lava onto the surrounding landscape from what is now Lismore in the south, to Tamborine in the north. Most lavas were basalt, which provided deep fertile soils. There were also some flows of rhyolite with layers of ash and boulders, particularly around Binna Burra, which provided poorer soils.
These different soils, derived from basalt and rhyolite lavas, have determined how plant communities are distributed in the area. Rainforest commonly occurs on soils derived from basalt, while rhyolitic soils, which are lower in available plant nutrients, support the open forest and heath at Daves Creek. Many rare and endangered plant species are found in these ecosystems.
The impressive stands of smooth, pink-barked brush box found on the Brush Box circuit also echo Australia’s climatic changes. Similar brush box in other parts of the World Heritage area have been radiocarbon dated at 1,500 years, making these giant trees the oldest ever carbon-dated on Australia’s mainland.
Lamington is now one of the few places where Nothofagus and Araucaria stand together as a reminder of the ‘golden age’ when the climate was warm and wet, just before conifers were overtaken by the new flowering plants. The Antarctic beech is little different from the flowering plants that flourished 100 million years ago. Almost all of Australia’s Antarctic beech forests are in the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, with Lamington their most northerly location. Nothofagus forests were once widespread across the continent and provided a habitat for many animals that have long since been extinct. Small pockets of Nothofagus forest and associated communities can be seen in several areas in the Park.
Lamington NP also protects one of Australia’s largest remaining forests of hoop pine, Araucaria cunninghamii, one of the world’s oldest conifers. It is also home home to the rare Albert’s lyrebird, which can imitate sound from its surroundings, from bird calls to human sounds such as chainsaws and car horns, barking dogs, crying babies and musical instruments. It is sad to read that the total population of these lyrebirds is estimated at only 3,500 breeding birds and it has one of the smallest distributional ranges of any bird on the continent. Sure hope the lifestyles of our generation will not be responsible for its extinction.
Today Lamington National Park is one of Queensland’s best-loved parks. Rugged mountain scenery, waterfalls (more than 500), caves, rainforest, wildflower heaths, tall open forests, creeks, varied wildlife and some great bushwalking are protected. Lamington is the core of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves Australia World Heritage Area along the adjoining Border Ranges National Park in New South Wales.