Butchulla Monument

The Butchulla Monument honours the Aboriginal tribes from the Wide Bay area.

The bronze plaque sculptured by Rhyl Hinwood shows an Aboriginal elder telling stories of the Dreamtime to children.

The monument contains a dance circle containing hand-made concrete plinths decorated with sea shells.

The Butchulla occupied Fraser Island for at least 5000 years. The Aboriginal lifestyle was disrupted soon after European settlement in the 1840s. Butchulla people put up a strong resistance but were overwhelmed by European weapons, followed by disease, drugs and lost food sources.

By the late 1800s, most remaining Aborigines from the region were relocated to an island mission settlement and then, in 1904, to various missions throughout Queensland.

A few Aboriginal families stayed behind, their men employed in local logging or fishing industries.

This dedication to the indigenous occupants of the Hervey Bay/Fraser Island area was set up in Pialba in 1988 for the bicentennial celebrations.