YUNGABA WINS 1ST PLACE IN Q150 ICON POLL AS NUMBER 1 "STATE-SHAPER".

Comments from the Chairman of the National Trust: "National Trust Queensland president John Jackson welcomed the list but said Yungaba Immigration Centre's top billing in the state-shapers section showed a commercial development at the site should be changed.

"Overall, the list is a very insightful view of our Queensland icons (and) there are some great choices," he said. "(But) so many Queenslanders arrived here via Yungaba and it must be recognised as far too important to convert into a high-cost residential development." Read more >>

Queensland Heritage Council chairman David Eades said the list showed heritage was firmly in our minds. "The Ekka showgrounds, Yungaba and Story Bridge - along with a number of exceptional Queenslander houses - are entered in the Queensland heritage register," he said."

YET IN SPITE OF THIS, THE SALE AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF YUNGABA IS STILL GOING AHEAD AND YUNGABA, and it is dues to be handed over to the developer in December 2009. The developer has already advertised sale of the first lot of units to be built on the site. Read More >>

URGENT – Last Minute Reprieve for Yungaba.

Lord Mayor has asked for people to write to him re a venue for a Multicultural and Indigenous Museum.
This could mean a last minute reprieve for Yungaba. Write to Lord Mayor at lordmayor@brisbane.qld.gov.au with your suggestions for Yungaba as the ideal venue for this museum.

Also contact our Premier Anna Bligh and ask her why???? premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au

Many thanks to those supporters who have already done so – they are very much appreciated.

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Quote from Raymond Evans, author of The History of Queensland which reached the shortlist of the Prime Minister's Liberary Awards in 2008":

"Yungabah Immigration Depot is a crucial part of Queensland history and must be preserved. It is ironic that as the State of Queensland and the City of Brisbane prepares to celebrate and commemorate 150 years of our history in 2009, we as a society are still blithely intent on the seemingly wanton destruction of the few remaining artefacts of that history - and all, it would seem, in the short-sighted pursuit of material profit. Can you imagine the United States of America giving the go-ahead for the dismantling or gutting of Ellis Island?

One of my earliest memories of Queensland, when I arrived as a Welsh migrant of four years in 1949, was attending a wonderful welcoming picnic event at Yungaba: I wonder how many Queenslanders have similar memories?"

READ SOME MORE OF THE HEART-FELT LETTERS OF SUPPORT AND AMAZING YUNGABA STORIES SENT IN TO US

On 6 December 1887 , the migrant ship “Duke of Buccleuch” landed the first migrants at Yungaba (Kangaroo Point Immigration Depot). Since then, hundreds of thousands of migrants, refugees and evacuees have been welcomed to Queensland within this gracious building and grounds. Yungaba also has national significance as it was the site of the deportation for thousands of South Sea Islanders under the White Australia Policy. During WW1 it was transformed into the 6 th Australian General Hospital where thousands of wounded Queensland ANZACS were welcomed home.

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