The People's Hub

Context

The consequence of an Architecture in the city

Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners

We acknowledge the Jagera People and the Turrbal People as the traditional owners of where the site stands, and pay respect to their Elders – past, present and emerging. The Turrbal call the site “Barrambbin”, meaning “windy place”. The site has been the meeting ground for corroborees and food gathering, but also carries religious significance for the Aboriginal People. Groups of up to 800 gathered at Barrambbin for ceremonial and trading purposes from as far away as the Blackall Ranges, and such large gatherings were a source of disquiet for the local settlers. The area comprises Site LB: N62 on the Department of Natural Resources and Water Indigenous Cultural Heritage Database of Aboriginal cultural heritage places.

Yorks Hollow

The acquired European name for the site is derived from the Duke of York, the settlers’ name for the acknowledged elder of the local Aboriginal clan as ‘Yorks Hollow’. From the 1840s onwards York’s Hollow gradually became the home of white itinerants who lived in tents in the area. By the 1850s the European settlement had begun to encroach on York’s Hollow. John Dunmore Lang’s immigrants settled in not far from the site; as new estates were being established in Herston. The Aboriginal groups were forced further out and by the 1860s most of the Aborigines had gone from York’s Hollow. In the 1870s the Brisbane Municipal Council began to fill the wetland lagoons on the Victoria Park reserve to convert it to parkland as “lungs of the city”.