Quinkan Cultural Centre in Laura, Queensland | History Museum

Quinkan Cultural Centre

Locality: Laura, Queensland

Phone: +61 7 4060 3457

Address: LOT 2 Peninsula Developmental Rd 4892 Laura, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.quinkancc.com.au

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24.01.2022 Had a blast today with the Laura Primary School kids and their incredible principal Mr Gunter. Half the kids were missing because an Elder passed away over the ...weekend, and I could tell I was in a special place. You can feel the weight of history every where you go. Wondering a few hundred metres into the surrounding land, you’ll stumble across rock paintings dated to 40,000BCE. Humans have been here a long long time. The kids converge on the school from the Olkola, Kuku Warra and Kuku Thaypan nations and speak different languages at home. From Grades 1 to 6, they share one classroom and are given the best chance for a bright future by some of the best teachers in the country. I know this because @redearthorg has been connected with the school for the past 7 years. We’ve come together to build a chicken coop, painted much of the school, put in soccer goals, done a whole lot of landscaping and fencing, and some of their students have even gotten scholarships to the schools down south that have visited! Of course, that all pales when compared to the bonds that have been forged between visiting students and local kids. If that’s not reconciliation in action, I don’t know what is! See more

21.01.2022 Split Rock Car Park 80s

20.01.2022 John I’m John, I was born in Coen back in 1954. I was born in the house, there was no hospital up in Coen in those days. Most of us kids were born in the house... or out in the stations (cattle). My family, there were 12 of us, 9 boys and 3 girls. Some were born in Cairns, some born out bush and me in the house. My Father Jack built the house, the house that Jack built (laughs). Our old house got wiped out in the 40’s after the war, it was an old wooden house, Dad brought it off the miners. Coen was a big gold mining town, when all the gold finished they all moved away. Dad brought this house off this old fella called Jack Bazeni (unknown spelling) for 22 pounds. Then that old house blew away so they went out in the bush and got timber, they got the iron (sheeting) up from Port Stewart and built a new one. A barge use to come up with all the food and everything. An old fella Morrie Shephard with his old army blitzen, he use to bring up all the food and all the people that come off the barge from Cairns, that was our supplies. There was this old white fella called Alf Coleman and he was the builder, he built most of the houses around Coen. When the house was built I was the first baby to be born in that house. I grew up there and went to school with all the people around Coen. There was still a lot of people living out bush in their tribes. We were the only people living in Coen, in the town, There were 2 other families, there was us, a family of 14 including Mum and Dad. The other families were the Port family, with Barry Port (retired Police Tracker), I think they had 13 kids plus their Mother and Father. The Creek family was another family and that sort of made up the whole town. A few of the other people, Police brought them into the town and they lived there. They built the Aboriginal Reserve there and that’s where they stayed. We all went to the same school. A lot of the station owners from all around Coen came in too and that’s when they built the AIM (Australian Inland Mission) hostel, a boarding hostel for the station owner’s kids. They went home for school holidays. I went to high school in Ravenshoe up the Tablelands up to grade 12. I finished high school and came back to Coen and looking for work then. I did a little work for Paddy Shephard at Lochinvar Station. My first job was at Yarraden Station, I was there for 2/3 months. I left there and got a job near Laura, out at Pinnacle Station with Bill Raymond. I did fencing, we did 100km’s of fencing, me and Billy on a contract basis. He paid me a $100 a week, when I finished I had a $1000 bucks, I was around 17 years old. After that I came into Laura. Laura was just a small town then, there were no houses then. All the people use to live down near the river. The old camp was where the dump is now. They were all in their little shacks. I just hung around here, I worked at Olive Vale Station, then I went to Kalpowar, then I went to Koolburra, then to Killarney, to kimba and then to King Junction. I spent 12 years at King Junction, I stayed there for a good while, it was more or less my home. I use to come in for 2 days for the rodeo and races (Laura) then back out again. I spent more time out in the station than I ever did in town. After that I went for a trip to Brisbane with my Brother, down there and to Surfers Paradise. I was down there for about 2 years. It was all good fun back in those days. I had a lot of money that was saved, around $30,000 as my bosses Wife use to put my money in the bank. She looked after me and brought clothes and all that for me when she went to Mareeba and Cairns. She flew down. Both my boss and his wife could fly planes. Really, she had her flying licence before her husband Ray Piggott, Jill could fly a plane, she was a good flyer. TBC #postpositive #yarrieyarns See more

19.01.2022 At this point in time we have not closed out our rock art tours for 2020 but won’t be taking bookings until after Easter. The situation will be reviewed after that. Any official advice as to total tour closures will only come from Quinkan and regional cultural centre via manger Lex Bloomfield 40603457. Please be patient. Laura motel and general store as well as the hotel are all open and welcome visitors to Laura during the Coming season.

19.01.2022 John I have worked with the ILC (Indigenous Land Corporation) that own Welcome and Crocodile Stations. I worked there for 10 years as a supervisor and mentor f...or the Indigenous Trainees. Around 2006 is when I joined. There was a few people working out there but I went out there when Roy got hurt. I wasn’t really working there then, I use to go out and give them a hand but when Roy got hurt I went out there and offered a hand as I knew he wouldn’t be able to do what he wanted to do. So they put be on as part time as I had experience of living on a station and running a station. Anyway I had all these trainees out there. After a while they put me on permanent as a Supervisor/Mentor for the Indigenous Trainees. So I stayed there for 10 years, I did my stint there which was all good fun. The reason why I left was for health reasons, my feet were killing me and I wasn’t able to walk around everywhere and keep up, so I had to leave. I was really sorry to leave the place. Saying that, I still help them out today. I still offer a hand when they need it. Karlene and Roy (Shephard) know who to look for when they want someone responsible. My Father use to work with Roy’s Father. I knew Karlene and Roy even before they got married. They are my best friends, they always stand up for me, even when they were my boss, we get on really well even to this day. Jack Thompson (Actor) turned up one day with his film crew and did some filming for the (Australian) Stockman’s Hall of Frame. We made a DVD at Crocodile Station. They interviewed Roy and me and a couple of others. It was a good couple of days with Jack Thompson. The filming was part of the Indigenous Heritage Project recognising Indigenous stockman and women and their role to the nation’s pastoral history. I have been tour guiding for about 30 years since I first come to town here in Laura. I use to help the old people here, I use to go out with them and do the tour guiding voluntarily for a while, learning and helping out. Then they put me on full time just before they built that centre (Quinkan and Regional Cultural Centre). Before that they had that old green building. The old people got older and older so I ended up doing all the tours then. I trained up a few others to do them like Steve Wilson. Roy (Banjo) was also there who learnt from a very early age from Tommy George. Gene Ross and Trevor Bramwell have been trained up as well. They are all good tour guides. I have been doing it for a long time and I love it. Everyday of the week I can do that, I never get sick of it because you meet different people everyday. Every person has a different story of their lives, what they are doing and why they are up here. The people love what I talk about and what they learn from me. They really really love it. They take a lot of beautiful photos back and then send their friends back then. Good word of mouth to get people to visit. The rock art sites here are one of the best in the world, plenty around here, they are everywhere, you could look for the rest of your life and still find some. Our rock art has been rated as the top 10 in the world. I love doing the tour guiding, that’s my job (with Olkola and Quinkan Centre). You get sick of some jobs but with tour guiding I never get sick of it. It doesn’t worry me what day it is either, a day is a day as long as I get paid, Saturday/Sunday/Christmas Day I will still do a tour. I don’t even worry about the Laura Rodeo and Races I just go and do a tour as you have to keep the business running at the centre. It’s great to share our culture. There’s probably 5 jobs there for the people as tour guides, admin, cleaning and grounds, if they get trained up, there could be a permeant job. If they are looking for a job, there is a job there. You don’t have to go and work away from home when there is work here. Plus you can be creative as well, you can think for yourself and think, I will do this and I will make this happen or this could happen if I work towards it. It’s all there if you really want to stay in Laura and work towards it. It’s no good in doing nothing, that’s my message to the people out there. Once you get a program off the ground, keep it off the ground. I tell everyone there’s not much that I don’t know and there’s not much that I can’t do. My motto is What I can’t do, can’t be done, what I don’t know is not worth knowing. TBC #postpositive #yarrieyarns Indigenous Land Corporation Quinkan Cultural Centre Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre

19.01.2022 Busy day guiding APT tour up Split Rock and clearing the track to another incredible site called Mushroom Rock at Laura, Cape York.

18.01.2022 Official Announcement: Returning to its rightful Traditional Owners; Ang-Gnarra Aboriginal Corporation will conduct and manage the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festiv...al in June 2020. This is to align the Dance festival with the Cooktown 250th celebration of the landing of Captain Jame Cook & crew and the first Bama contact with white people. All inquiries can be made through the Ang-Gnarra corporation office on 07 40602239 or email; ([email protected]) Corporate and local sponsorship for the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival 2020 would be greatly appreciated.

12.01.2022 John Only in the last couple of years I moved out to do the job out at Olkola on our country. We got a big country, we got it back in 2014. We manage 869.822 h...ectares. We got Killarney Station, Crosbie, Strathmay, Glen Garland and joint management with National Parks (Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service) as well. There’s a couple of other stations that we haven’t got back yet. In total the Olkola people own 1 million 400 thousand hectares. I went out there just recently but I was involved in it, Olkola, from the beginning. When I finished all the cattle work with the Indigenous Land Corporation (tomorrows yarn). I left that because of health reasons. Now I do tourism out at Killarney, we are just setting up but have done a few tours out there with old Jack Lowdown. Me and Jack are the knowledge holders. If anyone goes out to Killarney they need to come and see us, we take them out because it is a very sacred place out there. While we were doing the tours out there a lot of them herd about our tours on our country and our bush. We advertised it and Intrepid Travel come over, had a yarn with us and helped us out. We got some bookings to go and do some tours on our country and show them our story places. We tried it out and it worked. We run the tours ourselves now but we still get bookings from them to go up to Olkola country. We have the rare Golden Shouldered Parrot up there and lots of other wildlife. The lagoons up there after the wet are beautiful, Lilly lagoons, good bird watching and fishing. The Golden Shouldered Parrot is a totem of our people as well (speaks language for parrot), we have the white necked hawk like a Sea Eagle with a white head (speaks language for hawk) who represent the people down the Coleman River. Up near Glen Garland Station, that’s the Dingo story people there, we call that (speaks language for Dingo/dog) which means Dingo in our language and meaning the dog. Over near Dixie Station which is a national park now there’s another story place, another totem the worm people, I can’t pronounce that name in language. You go down the Alice River which starts up at Kimba then down to Kowanyama, that’s where you get the grasshopper people (speaks language name for grasshopper). All the rivers there flow into Kowanyama which means the land of many waters. Kowanyama use to be called Mitchell River Mission. A lot of Yarrabah people are from Alice River area too, Maloney’s, Bounghi’s, Millers, and that. They were taken away from Alice River Country when they were kids back in the early days because they were half-caste skin. My Mother got taken away from Alice River. She was born there and grew up with the tribe. A pack horse mailman was going through to Coen, old Jim McDowell. He use to take the mail from Mareeba or Laura all the way to the tip (of Cape York). He seen my Mother and told the Police. They found her on the road up near old Bamboo Station. They took her away when she was 10 years old and took her to Coen. They were going to send her to Yarrabah or Palm Island but these white people in Coen owned a cattle property, they were sort of rich people, they took my Mother and kept her there instead of sending her away. They more or less adopted her and gave her a name. People who owned the place were Charlie and Nancy Ahlers. They called my Mother Nancy Cora Ahlers. She grew up there until she was 17/18 and then married my Father in Coen. She become Nancy Cora Ross then. We were free people from the beginning, we weren’t under that Aboriginal Act. Dad was free and Mum was free. We never were under that Aboriginal Act where you had to go and sign the paper to get your rations. We were free people in Coen. There was this German Fella who come up here, about 7 foot tall, a really big man named Fred Kepple. He brought all these stations, I think he had 5 or 6 cattle properties. He got all these Aboriginal people to work for him, all the aboriginal people from the tribes. He named them all after him. I’m not pure Aboriginal, we got German, Afghan (from Afghanistan Cameleers), Irish, my Mum was a pure blood Aboriginal from Alice River, Olkola Country. Not from my Dad, his Father was a German and Mother an Afghan. But Dad grew up with the Mungkan people, them people looked after Dad and grew him up and taught him how to speak the Wik Mungkan language up at Coen. TBC #postpositive #yarrieyarns Olkola Aboriginal Corporation Intrepid Travel Queensland National Parks See more

12.01.2022 On the 10th November 2018, the Hon Melissa Price, Minister for the Environment, approved the listing of Quinkan Country, Cape York, as the 116 place in the Nati...onal Heritage List. Quinkan Country stands out among other regions because of the richness, size and density of its rock art. This listing will ensure the ongoing recognition and protection of a region that has been inhabited for at least 34,000 years. For more detail on this significant place go to the following link. https://bit.ly/2OFPLym #OzHeritage See more

11.01.2022 John I have a lot of diaries going back to the 70’s. I sort of learnt that from the school time, writing and keeping a diary. I remember when I was up at Kalpo...war (Station), we were at Jack Lakes, mustering around there. We just got into the cattle yards. I heard this car come in. When it arrived this girl was crying and I was wondering what she was crying about. They brought some bread and fresh meat for us as we were running out of supplies. I said, What’s the girl crying for? They said that Elvis Presley had died. I still remember that and still have that in my diary. I still keep a diary today. I have heaps of stuff in there, also when Slim Dusty died. I told Curtis (works with John) to keep a diary, to just write something in it in the afternoon when you come back, where you were that day, what you did. Because one day you might lose your licence and it might end up in Cairns or Brisbane or somewhere. Or someone might steal it, they go and rob a bank or whatever, kill someone and they will find your licence right at the crime scene, bang, they will get onto you. They will say, Where were you on this day? You can say, Well look at my diary, on that date I was there, we were down there putting signs up at Killarney. You got yourself covered. Speaking of crime scenes I joined the Queensland Police Service, the job was up, so I put in for it and got the job. I stayed and worked there for a few years as a PLO working in Laura here with my Officer in Charge, old Bob Hayden. It was all good, I learnt a lot from the Police. They learnt a lot off me too as my role was Police Liaison Officer/Tracker. Went out to Lakefield (National Park) a couple of times to look for some people that went missing. Me and old Bob found them so it was all good. I went to Cooktown with the Detectives from the drug squad looking for drugs and all of that. I did that and got a commendation for that. I was in the Police for about 4 years. I was here when they built the new Police Station in Laura. The Police Minister came up and gave me the commendation on that day, when the new Police Station opened. A friend of mine gave me the name ‘Sir John and now I get called that all the time. Bill Dunnett gave me that name when I was working for the Police. There was this article in the Cairns Post about the good job I did in Cooktown, Bill said, You are climbing the ladder mate, the next time I see you I will have to call you Sir John. The name is still there, everyone in town and wherever I go now call be that name, Sir John. #postpositive #yarrieyarns Queensland Police Service Thank you John for sharing your yarn.

07.01.2022 It appears for this 2020season the Centre will be unable to operate in any capacity closing until further notice. Qld borders are closed. Cape York is also closed off indefinitely. If you have made bookings from last year unfortunately all will be cancelled.

05.01.2022 Just returned from Cape York. Absolutely fantastic. To Paul and Faye our amazing guides: Thankyou for being exceptional people, so passionate about their job a...nd the exhilarating environment. We look forward to traveling with Outback Spirit again. A highly professional company that far exceeded our expectations. See more

01.01.2022 John I went down to Brisbane, partied there and worked there. I had a couple of friends who said, There’s a job, do you want to come? So I was at Wynnum/Manl...y a place called Hammant. I worked there in a tannery. I tanned all the hides and all of that. I worked there for a little bit, then I worked down at the Rocklea Markets, I did a bit of casual work there. Then up at the Pineapple factory in Strathpine up towards the Glasshouse Mountains. I then just did some travelling. I went down to Kempsey because that’s where Slim Dusty was born around that area, across the river from Bellbrook Mission, an Aboriginal community there on Nulla Nulla Creak. I went there as I am a huge Slim Dusty fan. I spent some time with the oldies there. A lot of the people knew Slim Dusty, went to school with him and grew up with him. They told me that they taught Slim Dusty how to play the guitar. They use to play together and that’s where he first wrote his song ‘When the rain tumbles down in July.’ It was one of his first songs that became popular. The girl that I was with, her Mum was Marlene Little who was the Sister of Jimmy Little. Jimmy Little and Slim Dusty become good friends later and sang together. They were still best mates when Slim Dusty died. I have a DVD of the tribute to Slim Dusty and all the singers were there, Jimmy Little sang a song about Slim Dusty. It was really good to meet them people and talk about it, it was really unreal. That’s the only reason why I really when down there (down south). For a couple of months I stayed down there, it was too cold down there so I made it back to Brisbane. I was at Coopers Plains there for a while with my Sister. After that, all that travelling and mucking around I said, I better get home. By boss paid by fare back on the plane to Cairns. He flew down from King Junction and picked me up in his little Cessna 280. Then it was back to King Junction, back in the bush again. I stayed there for another 4 or 5 years. We use to have the fly in’s every year. The North Queensland Aero Club use to come up. There was 10, 15 to 20 planes that came up. We would go out and kill a beast (cow) and have big barbecue’s. We would play horse polo. Go out shooting and all that sort of stuff, it was good fun. The fellas would get up and we would take the doors off the Cessna 280, they would get up there and all the fella’s would jump out with a parachute and land on a plate on the back lawn. This was in the 70’s. It was a really big weekend. We had Killarney Station come over, Kimba Station and a few other stations use to come down. It was a big turn out, maybe 40 or 50 people there. The boss sold the place due to a terrible accident. I stayed there for a little while, until the new owners came and to help them out and to show them around. I sort of drifted off then. I went back into Laura, there was plenty of work around in them days. The little pub in Laura before it burnt down, it was like information central. You could go in there and have a beer, sit down and the old fella who owned the pub would say, There’s a job out there or there’s a job out at that or this station. So we would be there for about 2 days and then gone again. There was a bank in the pub too, New South Wales Bank. TBC #postpositive #yarrieyarns The Slim Dusty Centre Slim Dusty See more