Victoria Park-Barrambin-Walan
a Place of Stories, Spirit and Survival
Victoria Park is not just a park, it’s a place of deep history and culture which is intricately linked to the story of Brisbane. Known by many names over time -
Victoria Park
York’s Hollow
Walan (‘bream’)
Barrambin (‘windy place’)
This land has long been a place of gathering, a site of both connection and conflict, and a witness to the unfolding story of Brisbane.
An Ancient and Sacred Place
For thousands of years before European settlement, Victoria Park-Barrambin was home to one of the largest First Nations camps in Brisbane, with up to 1,000 people living here at different times of the year, their camps positioned along ridges above waterholes where the breezes carried stories and songs.
The land was an open woodland of towering blue gums, ironbarks, spotted gum and forest oaks, with fresh waterholes and lagoons that teemed with life - bream, eels, waterfowl and reeds. Koalas, kangaroos, gliders, possums and emus were all plentiful. Some of the trees on this site are estimated to be between 200 and 700 years old and pre-date European settlement. These are not just trees, but living links to ancient history, culture and Country…
But this land was more than a home, it was a place of deep spiritual and cultural significance, lying along a songline. The area contains a sacred bunyip waterhole where Lake Barrambin and Ibis Island stands today. This is a site of Dreaming stories about the Rainbow Serpent carving the Brisbane River.
There are oral stories of a corroboree once performed at Victoria Park that told the creation of the Brisbane River by the Dreaming Ancestor (variously described as an eel, bunyip, the rainbow serpent, or a carpet snake). She gouged out the valley as she slithered down from the mountains, fleeing Goanna.
Goanna was after her eggs, which she carried in her mouth. These spilt out at the river mouth, becoming the islands and people.
Even colonists feared the spirit of this land. In the 1880s, Brisbane newspapers were filled with reports of a bunyip lurking in the depths of the York’s Hollow’s waterhole. One tale describes a squad of armed police marching through what is now Gregory Terrace, ready to “arrest” the creature.
Beaudesert Times, Friday 30 July 1920, page 3
Conflict and Resistance
As European settlement encroached, Victoria Park became a battleground and often a site of unprovoked attacks on the local Indigenous residents. There were at least three attacks which occurred on this land.
In 1846, after the murder of two white settlers 35 miles away, the local York’s Hollow clan was wrongly blamed. Their leader, known to settlers as the ‘Duke of York,’ was shot at and their camp was burned to the ground. There are conflicting reports of what happened to his pregnant daughter, Kitty. Some accounts say she survived, others say she was killed, while others say she died days after being raped in the attack. Many other Indigenous people were wounded or shot dead.
In the years that followed, the park saw more violence - police raids, military attacks, and resistance from First Nations warriors.
In 1849, two divisions of a regiment (24 soldiers) stormed a gathering of 100 to 500 First Nations people here, turning a place of community once more into a battlefield. This attack resulted in injuries to up to a dozen First Nations residents. Many oral traditions describe this attack as a massacre which resulted in the deaths of a significant number of people.
In 1864, the Volunteer Rifles staged a “mock” attack on the camp at Victoria Park, terrifying the residents and forcing them to flee. This incident must be seen in the broader context of colonial fear and violence: the Volunteer Rifles were established under Governor Bowen’s orders in response to settler fears of First Nations resistance, especially in the wake of the Hornet Bank and Cullin-la-ringo massacres. Though officially formed to defend towns from perceived threats, these units frequently targeted First Nations camps, including firing into those at Breakfast Creek, acts that sparked public outcry but were defended as legal military exercises.
While it's unclear if these actions caused physical harm, their intent was clearly to intimidate and assert control.
A Lasting Spirit
By the late 1800s, the area became a temporary refuge for migrants, with Indigenous residents helping to build the first dwellings and supplying bark sheets. Even as the city grew, Victoria Park continued to be a place where Brisbane’s history and nature intertwined.
York’s Hollow 1864
In 1875, the land was gazetted as public parkland and was gifted to the people of Brisbane to function as a park “and nothing else.” It was intended to be the “lungs to the city” and a park to rival London’s Hyde Park or New York’s Central Park.
At the time of being gazetted, the park was 130 hectares, but over time, it was carved away for roads, railway lines and development, leaving less than half of the original parkland today - just 64 hectares.
During World War II, the park became a hub for the US Army stationed in Brisbane and later a refuge for war brides, women who had married foreign soldiers and lived in makeshift homes scattered through the park. In the 1950s, these same buildings were converted into Housing Commission homes for struggling families, including many Indigenous residents.
Victoria Park During the War, Australian War Memorial
In 1959, during Queensland’s centenary, the park was a central part of grand centenary celebrations, community gatherings, and the construction of Centenary Pool, designed by renowned architect James Birrell, solidifying Victoria Park’s role as a cultural heart of the city.
Renowned Brisbane landscape architect Harry Oakman played a key role in shaping the park’s natural beauty, overseeing the planting of native trees.
He also managed the creation of heritage-listed Gundoo Memorial Grove on the Spring Hill side of the park, where Girls Grammar students planted over 1,000 native gum trees in tribute to Indigenous history and to mark the centenary.
Today, this land still holds its stories; the corroborees, the conflicts, the triumphs, and the history it has borne witness to. Every inch of the remaining 64 hectares is local or state heritage-listed, a testament to its cultural importance in the threads of Brisbane’s history.
We stand with the current and emerging elders who have opposed the destruction of this significant place.
Victoria Park, York’s Hollow, Walan, Barrambin is not vacant land. It’s not just a park. It’s a sacred site, a historical place and a park worth protecting.
Because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
Credits
Done flyover videos: Grant Sundin
Lake and cormorant video: @celinedoesbranding
Significant First Nations sites map concept and research: Dr Ray Kerkhove
Archival photos: the State Library of Queensland
World War II photo: Australian War Memorial
All other photos: Save Victoria Park Inc.
Text: Based on the research of Dr Ray Kerkhove