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17 July 2010 08:00 - 02:00 Washpool Picnic Ground below Crebra Farmhouse |
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This year the Shepherd’s Walk is on Saturday, July 17. It finishes at the Washpool (so named because the shepherds washed their sheep in it before shearing) Picnic Ground on the creek below Crebra Farmhouse. Excerpts from the Beaudesert Historical Society’s booklet by BP Ward help explain what it is all about…..……..
“Portion 47, Parish of Telemon, County of Ward
(Just north of the Christmas Creek Church on Len Cahill’s property)
The shepherds at this site would have been employees of William Barker, as this area was a part of the Tamrookum run, first leased by Tinker Campbell in 1842, who disposed of it in 1843 to Barker for 25 pounds. There is no record that Campbell stocked it. This hut had three rooms and was on an elevation some distance from water so as to avoid contact with aborigines whose paths followed along the creeks. It was occupied by three Chinamen and a woman, the wife of one. One of the other men was said to be a brother or either the wife or her husband. The nationality of this woman is not known but she probably would have been European. This group were attacked, at daylight one morning, by aborigines, killing the three men. It has never been reported how many aborigines were killed, if any but there would most likely have been some because shepherds were generally armed and at close quarters could hardly have missed.”.... ....“ The woman survived by falling between the bed and the wall, being hidden by blankets. When the coast was clear, perhaps she waited till night fall, she made her way eastward through the second gap from the south in the Gin Broken Range to her shepherd friends at Kerry (Portion 70, Parish of Kerry, County of Ward) where she told her traumatic tale.” Her path is now retraced by the Beaudesert Historical Society on their “Shepherd’s Walk” each year. A billy tea, damper and sausage sizzle lunch is held after the walk at the Washpool Picnic Ground. To book in to the walk please contact the Beaudesert Historical Society on phone 55413740.
To book nearby accommodation in the Lost World Valley please look at the accommodation pages of www.lostworldvalley.com
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