Details

Latitude

-25.18630116

Longitude

143.3688354

State

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Colonial accounts of Indigenous people.

"The bunya pine tree fruits every year to a certain extent, but in every third March it gives forth a prolific crop of Bunya nuts. This fact was known to the black man, and from all points of the compass he came, from the Downs, Moreton Boy, the Burnett, the Dawson, and from, far down the Condamine river. In fact, I heard my father say that on one occasion he saw a tribe of Barcoo blacks arrive. A lean, gaunt miserable lot they were, but they went away happy, and with skins as sleek as mice. The Bunya festive season used to last about six weeks, and, strange though it may seem, the blacks would arrive almost simultaneously on the mountains. By what means they measured time over a period of three years, and calculated with such precision the exact month in every third year when the bunya pines would be in full fruit is somewhat difficult for us to understand. We knew that the black man measured time by moon periods, but how he calculated the number of moons that would occur between one season and another, and kept a correct record of them is one of those things known only to themselves."

Sources