Twenty minutes north-west of Toowoomba, down a gravelly country road, lies one of Queensland’s most sacred and significant sites.
Behind the coolabah trees and bush-tucker garden, dozens of ancient stones swirl into mosaics of a starburst, rainbow snake, emu and turtle.
The rocks, which are now covered with a thin sheet of moss, were carefully placed on the arid land, known as Gummingurru, thousands of years ago.
The caretaker of the site, Conrad Bauwens, says Gummingurru is between 3,000 and 6,000 years old. “It’s the foundation of culture. It’s about the same age as the pyramids and Stonehenge,” he says.
But the site’s enduring cultural significance has been no roadblock to a state government proposal to build a bypass running alongside it.
Bauwens says he knew nothing about the government’s plans until he received a call from a concerned resident a few months ago.
“I was hurt. It’s like our church. There’s a certain amount of reverence and respect that should be shown to these places,” he says.
Every three years, boys from all corners of south-east Queensland and northern NSW would pass through Gummingurru – the site’s modern name meaning “men of the river” – on their way to the Bunya mountain festival.
It was where they became men, formed and strengthened alliances with other tribes. The site was used for male initiation rituals until the 1800s when Aboriginal people were forcibly relocated to segregated reserves.
“[They’re] going to destroy thousands of years of culture to save five minutes for a truck driver,” Bauwens says.
“It’s like a kid bloody grabbed a box of crayons and just drew a line on a map. It’s totally unacceptable.”
Queensland’s transport department has confirmed the 54km proposed Toowoomba north-south transport corridor will pass “near the historic and culturally sensitive Aboriginal site of Gummingurru”.
“Even though the corridor does not go through Gummingurru, the proximity of the corridor to the site means [the department] needs to work closely with the traditional owners to ensure its historic significance is preserved,” a spokesperson said.
‘Our country is our mother’
While the bypass remains in the planning stages, with funding yet to be allocated, traditional custodian and Conrad’s brother, Shannon Bauwens, fears it will compromise Gummingurru’s connection to other sites through ancient songlines. Songlines or dreaming tracks are oral navigational maps of landscapes passed down from elder to elder over thousands of years, he says.
“Our country is our mother, our teacher and the landscape we used to traverse is interconnected. By cutting through the larger landscape, you’re cutting through Gummingurru,” he says.
Gummingurru was handed back to its traditional owners, the Jarowair people, in 2000, with thousands of school kids and tourists now visiting each year.
The rock arrangement contains links to celestial navigation paths. Look closely and you’ll notice the emu is similar to its Aboriginal constellation, which is outlined by the dark areas of the night sky, not the stars. The rock starburst is aligned with Venus, the turtle points towards the east coast and the fish look toward the Condamine River, Conrad Bauwens says.
Uncle Wayne Fossey, the elder in residence at the University of Southern Queensland, says the site has the largest rock arrangement in Queensland and forms part of a larger culturally significant landscape. He says there may be other sites nearby that are still lost.
“We don’t really know what else is under there. We’ve only found one portion. So when you start putting through roads and that sort of stuff, it becomes a major impact on seeing what we’ve lost,” Fossey says.
Gummingurru ‘should be protected at all costs’
The transport department says Toowoomba’s population is expected to grow by up to 200,000 by 2046, and a new corridor would allow for more “safe and efficient trips” for “generations to come”.
Transport minister, Mark Bailey, says residents have been calling for “fewer heavy vehicles through the city for many years and for options to provide another transport route for growing communities”.
However, Liberal National party Toowoomba North MP, Trevor Watts, says Gummingurru is a “unique cultural heritage site” and a key component of Australia’s history that “should be protected at all costs”.
“Many people who, normally I would say, have passing interest in these things are actually saying, ‘Well that’s just stupid. Why would we put it there?’ That’s a regular comment,” he tells Guardian Australia.
Watts says while the road is desperately needed, the government should consult on other places to put it.
“We need to stop this process and, in an open, transparent and more collaborative way, find the best path to put this corridor down. Because in my opinion, this is not it. And in the opinion of my community, this is not it,” he says.
Conrad Bauwens says nothing can justify the potential impacts on such a significant site.
“The bypass is going to landlock us … It’s going to destroy the impact that we’ve made over the past 20 years in regards to reconciliation and breaking down social and cultural barriers,” he says.
“It’s an absolute travesty. You cannot replace it. It’s an ancient window into the past on how society functioned.”
