About Kurilpa

We honour the original owners of the Kurilpa pensinsula

The original inhabitants named the West End area “Kurilpa”, an Aboriginal word meaning "place for water rats", because of the large rats that infested the area close to the river. It is thought that these rats may have been a native rodent rather than the European form of today. (Interestingly enough, the native water rats of Kurilpa seem to have survived 200 years of European settlement, and are still found in the area around the Cultural Centre at South Bank.)

In pre-European days the area now known as West End was a neutral meeting place for a number of Aboriginal tribes and a rich food-gathering place. Aboriginals would walk along narrow riverbanks and pathways, collecting fresh fruits and hunting wild animals. Aboriginals from any tribe had the freedom to do so, because of the neutral nature of the area.

Kurilpa was site for Bora Rings and several other culturally significant places. Although they are not physically seen today, most of the Aborigines from Kurilpa still remember the cultural significance and traditional linkages to the area.


An ex-convict's notes of the 1820s appeared in the Brisbane Courier in May 1930:

"One of the most enticing spots within the Brisbane area was an immense jungle in the western portion of South Brisbane. It began at almost the spot where the Victoria Bridge now stands, and it followed the course of the river right away to Hill End, and along the whole length of what is now Montague Road. The jungle was a tangled mass of trees, vines, flowering creepers, staghorns, elkhorns, towering scrub palms, giant ferns and hundreds of other varieties of the fern family, beautiful and rare orchids, and the wild passion flower. While along the riverbank were the water lilies in thousands, and convolvulus of gorgeous hue... Parrots, blue pigeons and scrub turkeys could be seen in the rainforest itself, where the whip birds gave their distinctive call..."

"There is a close correlation between early Aboriginal pathways and tracks used by convicts and early European settlers. Montague Road approximates that used by hunter gatherers who swam from North Brisbane to the sandy beaches at the bend in the river to fish, to gather yam and reeds from the swamps, and to hunt rats and scrub turkeys in what constituted the West End jungle." (Brisbane City Council Heritage Study. 2.0.)

Aboriginal people also frequently swam across the river from St Lucia and Milton areas to South Brisbane for corroborees.

In 1823 Lieutenant Oxley mapped the Brisbane River which he named after the then Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane, and in 1824 a convict colony was started on the north shore of the river. The convicts cleared 350 acres of land on the south shore to grow food for the new colony.

Around present day Montague Road, men clearing the tangled rainforest sometimes came upon skeletons with rusting chains still riveted around their bones to tell a tale of some unfortunate convict who had made a dash for freedom, lived a few days in this tropical garden and then died there.

The Moreton Bay Settlement was thrown open to free settlers in 1842, with considerable rivalry between North Brisbane and South Brisbane, as well as the Kangaroo Point village. By 1843 three inns were in operation in South Brisbane. In 1846 the Government Census showed a population of 614 in North Brisbane and 346 in South Brisbane.

By 1848 there were 44 buildings, mostly made of slab, bark and shingle, on the south side of the Brisbane River. Squatters and teamsters bringing drays down from the Darling Downs and the headwaters of the Brisbane River tended to remain on the southside of the river. Wharves were built there, local businessmen erected homes on the hillsides, innkeepers raised shanties to accommodate thirsty travellers and the bustling new township of South Brisbane took shape.

By 1871 there were 680 dwellings in the settled part of the district of West End. It was thought that the district might have been named after London's West End as it developed into a fashionable area for the town houses of squatters from Toowoomba and surrounding areas. The squatters came primarily because of the racetrack at South Brisbane in the Melbourne Street swamp, however this was abandoned in 1868 following the Depression and financial crisis of 1866. A creek ran down Montague Road and around to Jane Street where it met the river.

Between Montague Road and the river, the area was flat and fertile and there were soon farms and orchards. In time, however, the West End area changed from a predominantly farming area to an increasingly residential area, supported by growing commercial interests in South Brisbane.

* Reproduced from a commemorative book celebrating the 125th Anniversary of West End State School, researched and written by Ms Marion Shields, Principal at the time. Other notes are from a Report on Aboriginal Housing prepared by the Musgrave Park Aboriginal Corporation.