Burpengary Creek

Burpengary Creek is located about 40 kilometres north of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia and has a total catchment area of 7,960 hectares. Burpengary Creek is an area serviced by Moreton Bay Regional Council.

The Burpengary Creek catchment forms part of the larger Deception Bay catchment and encompasses two distinctive creeks–Little Burpengary Creek (6,360ha) and Burpengary Creek (6, 360ha). These creeks flow into Deception Bay just south of the mouth of Caboolture River, which is itself south of Bribie Island.

Burpengary Creek begins in the D’Aguilar Ranges at a height of 340 metres above sea-level. The Creek continues to flow down the mountain slopes into Narangba, through the pine forests adjoining Oakey Flat Road. It then flows into the residential areas of Morayfield and Burpengary before spilling out into southern Deception Bay.

Burpengary known as the ‘place of the wattle trees’ holds deep significance for the Aboriginal communities that lived along the creek area. They found it valuable for camping, fishing, making canoes from the trees and for access to the coastline. The last male of the local tribe, Menvil Wanmurarn, was buried alongside the Creek when he died in 1900.

In 1842 Robert Dixon developed the first map of the area and marked Burpengary Creek on it as Cuthbertson Creek. By 1851 the area around Burpengary Creek was well settled and used for grazing cattle and growing sugar cane and bananas. The dairy industry had a quick demise and farmers were selling their land to Australian Paper Manufacturing (APM) Forests for the plantation of Pine Trees within the catchment. Within a short space of time, around 1958, APM eventually planted over 20,000 hectares of pine forests. Exotic conifers accounted for almost one-third of these forests. APM made a proposal to the Queensland State Government to build a large pulp mill nearby, but these were rejected and APM abandoned the land and sold it to a South Australian property developer. However, this land was marked by the former Caboolture Shire’s draft strategic plan to remain for basic rural activities and the development of urban and rural residential properties would not be permitted.

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Wikipedia