Incorporation Number
IA34960
YAG NEWSLETTER
URGENT – YOUR HELP NEEDED TO SAVE YUNGABA - NOW The National Heritage Council are currently considering Yungaba for National Heritage Significance and have asked for feedback - Could you please send in your comments to them on why you think Yungaba should be listed as nationally significant? To send your comment, go to http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_feedback;place_id=106006
To see the full Yungaba National Heritage Nomination – go to http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl & type in Yungaba & select the Yungaba National Heritage Nomination SEND TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS & NETWORKS!!! The Federal Government has intervened in Papua New Guinea to save a part of the Kokoda Track from development but won’t do anything to save Yungaba. Yungaba is the only intact 19 th century Immigration Depot left in Australia . It was the embarkation point for the infamous deportation of thousands of South Sea Islanders under the White Australia Policy. During WW1 it was the military hospital where wounded ANZACS were treated before they returned home.
The State Government has intervened to stop the development of the Regent Theatre, but won’t do anything to save Yungaba. Yungaba was the front door to hundreds of thousands of migrants to Queensland for over 100 years and it is estimated that one in every ten Queensland families has some connection to Yungaba. |
Report on 120 year Commemoration Party 8 th December 2007 About 100 guests gathered on the front lawn of Yungaba in a garden fete setting, replete with chamber music, to hear the guest speaker, Geoff Rutherford, share recollections about growing up at Yungaba in the 1950s as the son of the State Immigration Officer. Other guests included descendents of the first migrants who arrived at Yungaba in 1887, Elizabeth Parry-Okeden descendent of the famous 1880s Immigration Officer, William Parry-Okeden, descendents of JJ Bradfield – Queensland born designer of the Storey Bridge & the Sydney Harbour Bridge, recent migrants, former staff and descendents of military medical personnel from the WW1 military hospital as well as descendents of migrants and YAG supporters. After a tour of the outside of the building, visitors viewed a display of historical newspaper articles and images. A small ceremony was held, along with the cutting of a 120 year Anniversary Cake. Memories were exchanged and a pleasant, if sad time was had by all, knowing that this might be the last public ceremony in one of the most important buildings in the State, one which has served Queenslanders for over 100 years. A series of portraits of people associated with Yungaba has been taken by photographers Scott MacKinnon and Jessica Apthorpe. A glossy Anniversary Book is currently being composed and will be available for sale shortly.
Brisbane City Council Approval
Australand’s Development Application 964931 (see www.brisbane.qld.gov.au) was approved, subject to conditions, on 14 th December. Australand have made representations to BCC about the Approval conditions and negotiations are in progress. These may be completed shortly. Groups and individuals who made submissions on the DA will then be invited to submit an appeal. |
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We are currently forming a fundraising committee and are looking for willing workers. Do you have some good ideas for fundraising? Would you be interested in helping us begin to organise some exciting fundraising activities such as a Concert, Chocolate Drives, Stalls etc?
Ring or email us if you can help in any way.
VIP SUPPORT for YUNGABA Jackie French, famous Children’s Author writes: “Each time we destroy a tangible part of our heritage like Yungaba we lose some of the voices of our past. Yungaba carries the echoes of too many peoples' stories to have it vanish into just another production line development. ”
FURTHER YUNGABA RESEARCH With St Patrick’s Day just around the corner and the whole of Queensland gearing up to “don the green” and celebrate St Patrick’s Day, it is appropriate to look at the origins of Irish Immigration in Queensland .
The first Irish in Queensland were the Irish convicts who were sent to Moreton Bay under notorious conditions, made famous by the folk song “ Moreton Bay ”. Many were political prisoners jailed for opposition to British rule. Consequently in the early 1860s, the newly appointed Queensland authorities had no plans to include “rebellious” Irish immigrants in their first immigration scheme.
However, the crafty Irish Catholic Bishop of Brisbane, Bishop Quinn, founded the privately funded Queensland Immigration Society which helped thousands of Irish settlers arrive, so many that it was feared Queensland would become “Quinnsland”.
Although this loophole was stopped quite quickly, the Irish migrants soon proved their worth – they were young and hardworking, and more importantly, many young unmarried Irish women arrived in the mainly male pioneer society that was Queensland in the 19 th century.
Irish migrants were to remain disproportionately represented as migrants, many passing through Yungaba after the 1880s – and Queensland was the most Irish of all the Australian States at the time of Federation in 1900. The Darling Downs in particular was known as an Irish locality. |
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EXEMPLAR LETTER – CUT AND PASTE
Hon Robert Schwarten, MP
Minister for Public Works, Housing and Information and Communication Technology of Queensland
Level 7, 80 George Street, BRISBANE QLD 4000
GPO Box 2457, BRISBANE QLD 4001
Dear Minister Robert Schwarten,
I am writing to you to request that you excise the heritage Yungaba building and gardens from the sale of public land at Kangaroo Point and that you conduct a feasibility study into a self-sustaining tourist development that restores the main building and grounds to their former glory.
You may not be aware what an act of vandalism the alienation of this historic building is. Any local historian will tell you how significant this building has been in developing our State’s identity. Many ordinary Queenslanders vehemently oppose your proposed sale of this historic building, undertaken without any public consultation and in secrecy.
Almost all of the 70 submissions to Brisbane City Council rejected outright the development application submitted by the developer and want it retained in public hands. Over 40 of the submissions were in favour of an Immigration World alternative proposed by Yungaba Action Group.
Yungaba Action Group has submitted a petition with the names and addresses of over 860 individuals who have requested you to discontinue the ongoing attempt to sell Yungaba. Many of these have written their reasons and these have been made available to you and the Queensland Parliament. That is 86 persons against each of the ten 2-person residences, an overwhelming opposition.
Yungaba is an emblem for many immigrant Queenslanders. Its generous design for immigrant reception symbolises the welcome in Queensland for people who have given up everything except their dignity. To remove it from public access is an insult to dignity, a rejection of immigrants’ sacrifices. Replacing it with a new multicultural building in the carpark is an insult to immigrants and their descendents by degrading their welcome here.
For 120 years Yungaba has welcomed immigrants and when they were few it has served other groups in the Queensland community, for example as a military hospital during WW1. Always it has been preserved and passed down from generation to generation. The government has a sacred trust to pass it on intact and uncompromised by private ownership.
Yours truly
Copy: The Premier, Hon Anna Bligh, MP
Member for South Brisbane
100 George Street, BRISBANE QLD 4000
PO Box 15185, CITY EAST QLD 4002
premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au
One of many verandas around Yungaba House. 