Constance Petrie. CLASSICS
Constance Campbell Petrie’s book about her father is an important document from the good kind of early Australian settlers. Tom Petrie attended one of the earliest schools in Brisbane, with Aboriginal classmates who taught him their languages. There is a glossary of words and place names at the back of the book, which is excellent. Tom Petrie recalls the early days of Brisbane town from the 1830s, the Turrbal or north-side Aborigines, and their places and practises.
Tom is allowed by his parents to “go walkabout” with the Aborigines, as they do the triennial walk to the Bunya Mountains for the Bunya Nut festival. He tells us of the dawn-time “Cry of the Dead” which local Aborigines made in their camps. He walked the Aboriginal trails linking campsites, Bora Rings, and Pullen Pullen fighting grounds. I was excited by Petrie’s mention of which tribes frequented which grounds, as his words linked my friends in the Cressbrook family to the Bora Grounds near Samford, and the Roma St Pullen Pullen ground. An invaluable resource.
The Petries treated their Aboriginal neighbours with mercy and respect, but the author outlines the poisoning and shooting of Brisbane Aborigines by the police and racist settlers.