Category: Aboriginal Australia

Nineteenth century aboriginal elder Dalaipi lived in what is now Petrie, north of Brisbane.

He was the custodian of several sacred sites in the district including a bora-ring called “Nindur-Ngineddo” (meaning “leech sitting down”).

Sadly, the bora ring today is under the round-about at Petrie, and no trace of it remains.

It does seem ironic that a modern circular traffic construction should be sitting on top of an ancient circular spiritual construction.

Perhaps the spirit of Dalaipi had something to do with that.

You’re supposed to treat a bora ring with respect and not just go blundering through it. The busy traffic makes it virtually impossible for anyone to casually blunder through the site at all. In fact I risked life and limb to just cross the road to get to it.

Although thousands of cars per day drive around it, I think it would be rare for someone to actually walk through it.

Mandin

In 1824, John Oxley wrote that he saw a weir in the North Pine River. The local Turrbal people called it “Mandin”. It was a pocket coming off the river into which they would drive fish, which would then be easily caught.

This is “Mandin” as it appears today, just west of the railway bridge over the North Pine River.

I stopped there today, and it was easy to imagine young Aborigine kids from 200 years ago splashing about in the water, chasing fish into this pocket.

I could almost hear it.