One wonders whether the children attending Petrie’s Our Lady of the Way School consider the historical importance of their playground as the location of one of the earliest collaborations between early settlers and the First Nations people of Moreton Bay.
Early explorer Tom Petrie (1831-1910) was a speaker of the Turrbal dialect and mixed freely with the Turrbal people, something unusual in society circles at the time. When searching for grazing land in the 1860s, Petrie worked in partnership with his friend Dalaipi, a distinguished elder of the North Pine Clan. Dalaipi played a vital role in guiding him to suitable land at the mouth of the Pine River. Petrie called the land ‘Murrumba,’ a name thought to refer to the local Indigenous dialect.
The Turrbal people were instrumental in the development of the land, assisting Petrie with tasks like land clearing, building stockyards and constructing a hut on the eastern side of Petrie Hill, where the school is now located. By 1884, Murrumba comprised two dwelling houses, a kitchen, stables, a dairy, a milking shed and two huts.
A plaque on Armstrong Street marks the location of Murrumba’s former stables. As the first staging post for Cobb & Co’s route northward, Murrumba became the hub of community life and the catalyst for further development of the North Pine township (later renamed Petrie).
Features of the Original Murrumba Homestead
The original ‘Murrumba’ homestead was destroyed by fire, the second by termites, but the third dwelling, built in the 1870s, featured twelve bedrooms, a dining room, a drawing room and a lamp room (for cleaning and filling lamps) plus interiors filled with cedar chests and tables, sturdy four poster beds and carved dining room chairs.
The garden was planted with Bunya, Hoop and Kauri Pines, Weeping Figs, macadamias and other tree species for commercial timber and medicinal purposes. A grove of Hoop Pine behind the homestead site was reputedly planted by Dalaipi.
Estelle Thomson’s book (1940) describes “Towering Kauri and Hoop pines” and a “Giant Weeping Fig” at the rear of the homestead. Heritage-listed in 2009, Murrumba’s gardens are regarded as “one of the most extensive mid-nineteenth century private garden plantings in Queensland.”
Tom Petrie passed away at Murrumba in 1910. The property was sold to Archbishop Duhig in 1951, on the understanding the homestead be retained. Duhig then sold the property to the Presentation Sisters. The homestead was removed in 1952.
Today, the only visible remnant of the Murrumba homestead is a row of hand-made bricks from the bakehouse floor visible near the school’s entrance, and the many specimens of mature trees that survive in the school grounds.
Read more stories from The North Lakes Guide print magazine here:
- In the North Lakes Loop: Updates from the Community
- Eco Eve: Living a More Environmentally Friendly Life!
- What’s Hot Around Town
- A Whale Of A Tale
- Polls, Preferences & Power: Your 2025 Voting Guide
- Carp Cyprinus carpio
- Organic Gardening in May
- The Aegean Movie Review
- Making a Scene Podcast Review
- Embracing the Fabulous Side of Life
- Jaws: For Kids Makes a Splash Anywhere
- A Wonderland of Oddities at Forgotten Fairytales Market
- It’s a paw-fect time to walk
- Moreton Bay Business & Innovation Awards
- Make a Difference: Volunteer with St John Ambulance Queensland
- Lights, stage, act-ion
- A Celebration of Culture and Community
- Dig Into Plants and Prizes at Pine Rivers Garden Fair
- Baked Apples Recipe
- Tatts Are Back for Hard Road Tour
