Part 2 – Chpt 5

“Mr. Thorn drew the attention of the Belmont Board at Wednesday’s meeting to the fact that there was a tree lying on the summit of Mount Petrie, Mr. Prout’s property, which bore a relic of the early days. The tree had a scarf cut out’ and in its place there was carved the name ‘A. Petrie, 1838., This was the father of Mr. T. Petrie, of North Pine, and the grandfather of the present member for Toombul. Mr. Thorn thought the relic ought to be in the Museum, and for this purpose moved that Mr. Prout be written to, asking permission to cut and remove the portion of the tree referred to. Mr. Lees seconded the motion, which was unanimously agreed to.” A trigonometrical station was built on Mount Petrie, and Mr. Andrew Petrie’s tree was cut down to make room for the beacon. In 1896, when the board sought the tree, it had just been burnt by bush fires. The writer is indebted to Mr. Lees for a rough sketch of the tree while standing.

In Mr. Andrew Petrie’s explorations he found many new specimens of timber. Says Dr. Lang, on page 135 of his book, “Cooksland” :-

“I shall enumerate a few of the more important species of the timber of Moreton Bay, with notanda, illustrative of the qualities, localities, and uses, for which I am indebted in great measure to Mr. Andrew Petrie, the able and intelligent superintendent of Government works at Moreton Bay, while that part of the territory was a penal settlement.”

Dr. Lang speaks first of the Araucaria Cunninghami, or the Moreton Bay pine. He ends his description by saying: “There are two varieties of this pine-that of the mountain, and that of the plains or alluvial flats on the banks of rivers. Of the former of these varieties, Mr. Petrie, who first observed its superior qualities, states that it is little inferior to the Bunya Bunya pine. It is well adapted for masts and spars’ and grows nearly as large as the bunya; no sap or knots to injure the spars.”

Secondly, Dr. Lang speaks of the Araucaria Bidwelli, or the Bunya Bunya pine, and he again quotes from his friend. He writes:”This tree,’ observes Mr. Petrie, grows to an immense height and girth. I have measured some ordin- ary sized trees, one hundred and fifty feet high, and about four feet in diameter. They are as straight and round as a gun barrel. The timber grows in a spiral form, and would answer admirably for ship’s masts of any size. This pine bears a great strain traversely, one of its superior qualities; also there is no sap wood nor knots in the barrel, the lateral branches being never above two or three inches in diameter, and growing from the outer rind of the tree. The fruit of this pine is a large cone or core, about nine by six inches, and covered with small cones, similar in appearance to a pineapple. It is these small nuts that the blacks eat; they travel two or three hundred miles to feed on the fruit. It is plentiful every three years. The timber grows in latitude twenty-five and twenty-six degrees, and about sixty miles in longitude. It is not known at present to grow anywhere else. It grows plentifully in this latitude. I was the first person who risked my life with others in procuring the first plants of this tree, and Mr. Bidwell was some years after me.'”

Dr. Lang next writes of the red cedar, and tells how in the prisoners’ time, the Government had it all cut down to give employment to the convicts, and large quantities went to waste. Then he quotes yet again from Mr. Petrie :

“‘IRON BARK. This tree grows plentifully in the forest, and is suitable for house or shipbuilding, and is a valuable timber.

“BLUE GUM.-This is another valuable hardwood timber, and is well adapted for all kinds of carpentry work.

“Box. This timber is very suitable for all agricultural implements, and for many other purposes.

“ROSE OR VIOLET WOOD.-This is a valuable timber, and is suitable for gig shafts, etc., being similar to our lance- wood at home. The aborigines make their spears of this wood, and they know the art of straightening them when crooked.

“SILK OAK. This is a very beautiful tree, and the timber is well adapted for the sheathing of vessels, and many other useful purposes.

“FOREST OAK.-Known also by the name of beefwood; suitable for tool handles, bullock yolks, etc. It is used principally for firewood.

“TULIP WOOD.-This wood is suitable for fancy, cabinet, and turning work. It grows in the scrub. The tree appears like a cluster of Gothic columns.

“There are a great many other species of valuable timber in this district,’ observes Mr. Petrie,’ that I have not described, not having specimens to give you. Logwood and Fustic have been procured here. The timber trade will form one one of the principal branches of commerce. I also send you a small sample of the native gums. Gums could be procured in this district in considerable quantities.”

It is interesting to compare the first opinions formed of the timbers of Moreton Bay with those of the present day. Mr. Petrie was correct in his prophecy that “the timber trade will form one of the principal branches of commerce.” We will now follow him in his adventures whilst obtaining specimens of the Bunya Bunya pine. The exact date of his discovery of the tree is not remembered, but several years after he gave a Mr. Bidwell specimens, and that gentle- man forwarding them to England, got the credit of the discovery, for the tree was named after him-Araucaria Bidwilli.

During an excursion to Maroochy in those early years Mr. Petrie succeeded in procuring what has been spoken of as “the first specimens of Bunya pine seen by those in the settlement.” “From the plants he brought with him,” says Mr. Knight, “which were obtained at considerable risk, owing to the unfriendly attitude of the blacks, may be said to have sprung many of the fine specimens now to be seen about Brisbane and Sydney.” On this excursion he was accompanied by his son John (so well known after- wards in Brisbane), two convicts, and two native blacks as guides” Tunbur” and “Dundawaian.” They also had with them a pack bullock, which carried the rations and blankets. Mr. Petrie got specimens of different kinds of timber besides the Bunya, and years afterwards, when his son “Tom,” travelled with the blacks to their feast of the Bunya season, they showed the young fellow where his father had been (between Dulong and Razor Back), and the direction he took through the scrub.

On the return from this trip, Mr. Petrie camped at the foot of Beerwah Mountain, for he was anxious to ascend it and take observations from the summit. (He always carried his instruments with him.) He tried to get a black- fellow to climb also, but in vain, for the man declared that should such a thing be done the spirit who lived at the top of the mountain would kill him. John Petrie, therefore, accompanied his father, and they carried with them a bottle of water, reaching the top after great difficulty. Mr. Petrie took bearings for the assistance of the surveyors, who were then commencing a trigonometrical survey, and after a good look round and a rest, he wrote his name, with date attached, on a slip of paper, and corking this up in the now empty bottle, placed it safely under a rock, and descended to the camp. (In after years John Petrie called his house on Gregory Terrace “Beerwah.”)

The next person who climbed Beerwah was Mr. Burnett, the Government Surveyor (after whom the Burnett River was named), and he also put his name in the bottle. Several others have been up since. The story of the bottle was told my father by Grandfather years after the event, when the old gentleman was blind. The blacks had a strange idea about that same blindness-they declared that the spirit of the mountain had caused it in order that Mr. Petrie would be for ever afterwards unable to see his way up again.

I have already quoted from a book written by Mr. T. Archer” Recollections of a Rambling Life”-and now add the following extract, which is of interest, here:-

“Before finally squatting’ in this unpromising land, we made some efforts to discover something better by making excursions into the surrounding country. I set off on foot one day on one of these search expeditions, accompanied by Jimmy, and a native of the country named ‘Jimmy Beerwah,’ who could speak a little dog English,’ or black. fellow slang, having been occasionally at the German Mission, near Brisbane. He led us ten or a dozen miles eastward through thickly-timbered and very poor country, when there appeared ahead of us a huge isolated sugar-loaf mountain, presenting an apparently inaccessible wall of bare rock. When we reached the foot of it I sat down on a stone, thinking our adventures for that day were over, but’ Jimmy Beerwah continued to advance, making use of some crevices and projections to haul himself upwards, and beckoning to us to follow. Not to disgrace my Norwegian training as a cragsman, I did so, and the other Jimmy brought up the rear, and never have I forgotten the magnificent view that met our gaze, when, after half-an-hour’s scramble, we reached the top.

Nearly the whole of the Moreton Bay district lay spread out beneath us, and about a dozen miles to the eastward of us was the sea, the sea, the open sea,’ glittering in the sunlight, with Briby’s Island, Moreton Island, and Moreton Bay to the South, and a hundred miles of coast, stretching away to the north. For two years I had not beheld this, my favourite element, and was delighted to see it once more; but Jimmy, who had never before seen a sheet of water bigger than Wingate’s Lagoon, was transfixed with astonishment, and stood staring at it in mute admiration, though he was far too proud to give vent to his feelings by indulging in undignified gestures like his more unsophisticated and barbarous countrymen on their first introduction to a flock of sheep. I had begun the ascent of that mountain laying the flattering unction to my soul that I was the first white man to accomplish the feat, but when about half way up, I began to notice indications of whites having been before me, in sundry scratches on the rocks that could have been made only by the nailed soles of boots, and what was my disgust, on attaining the pinnacle, to discover a cairn of stones containing a bottle in which was a scrap of paper with the names of Andrew Petrie, and John Petrie (his son), and one or two others written on it in pencil; this was a mortifying discovery, but one that had to be borne with becoming resignation. The name of the mountain was Beerwah, and it was the highest and most westerly of a cluster of peaked hills, scattered irregularly between it and the sea, called the Glass House Mountains. Our guide, ‘Jimmy Beerwah,’ had probably that name bestowed on him by Mr. Petrie, the Government Engineer at Brisbane, for guiding him and his party to the top of the mountain shortly before our arrival. Jimmy Beerwah,’ no doubt, tried to explain this to us, but our ignorance of the Moreton Bay blacks’ slang prevented us from understanding him.”

The writer came across Mr. Archer’s book after describing Mount Beerwah’s ascent by Mr. Andrew Petrie. It will be seen that the latter climbed with his son without the assist- ance of a blackfellow, but perchance “Jimmy Beerwah ” was the black who refused to climb on that occasion.

This “Jimmy Beerwah” was, my father says, a regular messenger man among the blacks. He carried messages from tribe to tribe by means of the usual notched stick. A messenger could travel anywhere with safety, going unharmed even amongst hostile tribes.

Another time my grandfather journeyed from Brisbane to where Caboolture is now, to obtain a block of timber from a Bunya pine. This time he had with him the same blackfellows, two or three convicts, and his son John. The first night they camped at North Pine, where the “kippa ” ring was then, and, of course, round about was all wild forest -no roads to Caboolture, nor bush tracks even. Long afterwards, when my father went to live at the Pine, the aborigines showed him just where his father had camped- they said he had with him a bullock on which chains were put, “all same as ‘croppies’ (prisoners), so that fellow not run away.”

The “kippa” ring at the Pine owned the curious native name of “Nindur-ngineddo,” which means a “leech sitting down.” The larger ring was made just where the present road is opposite the blacksmith’s shop, and the roadway to the smaller one (where the travellers camped) ran up behind the shop to the top of the ridge, where in the paddock behind Murrumba” even yet a part of the ring and roadway can be seen.

When Mr. Petrie and his companions had reached the Caboolture River they had to go up it a little way in order to be able to cross with the pack-bullock-the pine they were in quest of stood on the north bank. Arriving at the tree, they started to cut out a piece, and the blacks showed they did not like this at all, complaining that they had piloted the party to see the tree, not to cut it. I have previously mentioned that the aborigines would not (in the very early days) even cut notches in a bunya pine, and on this occasion they almost cried in their distress, saying the tree would die of its wounds. Mr. Andrew Petrie had to assure them it would not, and he promised supplies of tobacco. So the deed was done; and, after camping that night, the junk of wood was put on the pack-bullock next morning, and eventually Brisbane was safely reached. Mr. Petrie had the block of timber cut up, and some of it polished to show the grain.

Doubtless there are farmers still on the Caboolture River who remember seeing that old bunya tree with the piece cut from it. It stood close to where the bridge now crosses the river.

Mr. Henry Stuart Russell, author of “Genesis of Queens- land,” refers to the Bunya pine. He says:–

“The Bunnia-Bunnia (Araucaria Bidwelli), which expresses so much in aboriginal traditions, claims a few remarks before passing on from Wide Bay.

“Andrew Petrie, who held the post of Foreman of Works, January, 1836, under the Government, Brisbane, was the first white intelligent discoverer of this tree, sometimes, I think, in 1838. Under the guidance of some blacks, he had visited a spot on which it grew, took a drawing of it, and brought in a sample of the timber, the finding of which, and his opinion as to its value, he at once reported. It got the name of ‘Pinus Petriana;’ deservedly, I should have thought; but not, it seemed, in accordance with the manorial rights of red- tape.”

Mr. Russell then speaks of meeting (shortly after returning from Wide Bay in 1842) a Mr. Bidwell,” an attache to the Botanical Society in London,” in search of Bunya plants to send to England. He sent three, two of which Mr. Russell afterwards saw growing there. The latter adds :-

“Being reported in this fashion, it became known, de riguer, as the Araucaria Bidwilli’ for all time; the true worker’s-Petrie’s solid claim was outbid by the less title to fame. I can recollect cones of the Bunnia being sold at Covent Garden, London, for ten guineas each.”

Yet another extract from Mr. Archer’s book:-

“They (the blacks) were quiet and peaceable and not nearly so numerous as at Durandur, except in the bunya season, when they mustered in large numbers from great distances; but then the bunya cones supplied them so amply with food that they were not tempted by hunger to supply themselves with animal food from our flocks. I need not describe to you the bunya tree, as you have all seen one growing in the Gracemere garden, where it thrives, though it is not a native of that district. The tree when in its native home is confined to a comparatively small space of country, beginning about Cunningham’s Gap in the south and extending north- ward along the Main Range for about one hundred and fifty miles to the head of the Cooyar Creek, there a spur branches off from the Main Range eastward toward the coast, separating the waters of the Brisbane from those of the Mary River, and approaching the coast between the Glass House Mountains and the Mooroochie River, its length being about another one hundred and fifty miles. Along this range and all its spurs the bunya flourishes, and supplies (or supplied) the blacks every third year with ample stores of food from its huge cones, larger than a man’s head, and containing kernals as large as an almond. Its botanical name, the Araucaria Bidwilli, was given to it because Mr. Bidwill is supposed to be the first white man who brought it into notice. But this is a mistake. The tree was first discovered by Mr. Petrie, the Government Engineer, on his expedition mentioned above, when he ascended Mount Beerwah, and found the Mooroochie River. He, however, was not a scientific botanist, and only reported his discoveries in the colonies, whereas Mr. Bidwill sent the cone to England, and thus got the credit of being the discoverer of the tree.”

In Mr. Andrew Petrie’s diary of his trip to Wide Bay in 1842 (to be quoted later), speaking of that part of the world, he says:-” In this scrub I found a species of pine, not known before. It is similar to the New Zealand Cowrie pine, and bears a cone. It forms a valuable timber, etc.” This evidently is the pine Agathis Robusta, known to the early blacks as “Dundardum” (Dundardoom). The white man has mispronounced it so-” Dundathu.”

An article on Brisbane by an unsigned writer, appearing in the “Town and Country Journal” some time since, speaks of Mr. Andrew Petrie’s discoveries, then adds:—- “He was, in fact, so indefatigable in developing the natural resources of the district, and labouring for its welfare, that any attempt to write the story of Brisbane would be absolutely incomplete without reference to the pioneer Andrew Petrie and his descendants.” With regard to his coal discoveries, Mr. J. J. Knight says:-“In several other ways did Mr. Petrie demonstrate the capabilities of the district, not the least important being the discovery of coal at Tivoli while on a visit to Redbank station. So impressed was he with the importance of this find that he sent two sample casks to Sydney; it was tested, and pronounced highly satisfactory. At a later period, it may be mentioned, a tunnel was run into the hill, and a plentiful supply obtained for the penal establishment. It may also be remarked that Mr. Petrie found, though some time after the discovery at Tivoli, the black diamond at Redbank and Moggill, and mines at these places were in subsequent years worked by the veteran John Williams. The value of such discoveries was not wholly apparent in those bygone days; it is now that the trade has grown to such dimensions, and forms so important a part in the commercial worth, that we can realise their importance to the full.”

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