Yugambeh Nation

22/07/2026

The hypocrisy is wild.

​A former Catholic church—a building bought, sold, and no longer owned by the Church—is expected to be treated as a sacred, untouchable site forever.

​Meanwhile, actual Indigenous land, tens of thousands of years of sacred history, connection, and culture, never ceded, is regularly bulldozed, mined, or turned into parking lots in the name of "progress."

​It’s crazy how quickly society jumps to defend the 'sacred' history of a modern building, while treating thousands of years of living Indigenous connection as just real estate.

11/07/2026

🖤💛❤️ Standing United in Sorrow: Sorry Business for Our Nation ❤️💛🖤

​Our Yugambeh Mununjali community has been shaken to its core this week by a devastating loss that reaches across generations. On Monday, 6 July, six-year-old Ari ("Ari Bear") was involved in a tragic car accident at Gleneagle. Surrounded by the deep, enduring love of his family, our beautiful jarjum gained his wings on Friday, 10 July. 😭

​Ari is the precious grandson of one of our deeply respected community Elders. When a tragedy of this magnitude touches those who carry our history and guide our people, the heartbreak is felt by the entire Nation.❤️‍🔥

​Out of absolute respect for the family and the heavy weight of Sorry Business currently resting on our community, the decision was made to cancel the Mununjali NAIDOC Gala. Right now, celebrating is put aside so we can do what matters most: wrap our Elder, their children Sharni and Bradley, and the entire family in our collective strength and love.💜

​Even through the unimaginable pain of losing their boy, Sharni and Bradley made the profoundly selfless decision to honor Ari’s spirit through organ donation. Because of this gift, two young children and two adults have been given a future. It is a powerful legacy of generosity that reflects the very spirit of our people. 🦅

​As a one-income family of five, Ari's parents now face the grueling journey of navigating this grief while supporting his siblings—Van, Xavier, Levi, and Marlowe. The physical and emotional toll is immense, with Ari's grandmother and cousin also recovering from injuries sustained in the crash.

​When one part of our Nation hurts, we all carry the weight. We are calling on all Yugambeh mob, the Beaudesert community, and the wider public to step up and support this family. Let us ease their financial burden so they can grieve, heal, and hold each other tight without the added pressure of the outside world.

​How you can stand with them:
👉 Donate to the GoFundMe: Any contribution helps give the family the vital time away from work they need.
👉 Share this post: Help us spread this message across the community and beyond to maximize support.

​We stand strong together, carrying our Elders and our jarjums in our hearts. 👣🫂

​Forever six. Forever loved. Forever remembered. 🕊️

No parent should ever have to endure the heartbreak of losing a child. On Mo… Tracy Ward needs your support for "Forever Six" Supporting Ari Bears Family

29/05/2026

I believe this protest is still going ahead on Sunday - https://www.facebook.com/events/2027999931125654/

UPDATE:
I see a bunch of man-babies in the comments having a sook that people have been exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest, so I thought I'd highlight a few points...

1. Before the 2024 Queensland state election, Premier David Crissafulli promised REPEATEDLY that he would not build Olympic stadiums in Barrambin/Victoria Park. He promised it like five different times in different media interviews and pre-election debates. Then shortly after the election, he broke that promise.

If people DON'T protest when politicians break major election promises, we're just rewarding those politicians for misleading the public.

2. The premier still doesn't actually know for sure how much it will cost to build these new Olympic stadiums. There's no business case or detailed design (just a couple pretty pictures a graphic designer knocked up). We can be pretty confident that his initial $4 billion estimate is gonna turn out to be way too low and that this project (IF it goes ahead) will suffer major cost blowouts.

How is the Premier proposing to pay for that cost blowout? In large part, through asset sales...

Across Queensland, the LNP are selling off government-owned land which was earmarked either for public/affordable housing, or for parkland. So they're building over Brisbane's largest inner-city park, AND selling off other chunks of current/future parkland in places like Woolloongabba and West End to pay for it. But those asset sales still won't cover the full cost.

Ultimately, to pay for these stadiums, the LNP are gonna have to reduce funding for stuff like schools, hospitals, regional road repairs, homelessness support services etc.

Basically they're telling us "Sorry, we can't afford to help Queenslanders keep a roof over their heads, but we CAN afford to write a blank cheque to build Olympic stadiums, which, by the way, also means there will be less construction workforce capacity for other stuff we actually need like housing."

3. For people saying stuff like "No-one ever mentioned this was a significant Aboriginal site back when it was a golf course!" that's actually just bu****it. Aboriginal people have been identifying that this is a historically and culturally significant area for generations - there are plenty of articles, stories etc about it. Just because you never heard about it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense that while the site was just being used as a golf course/park, no-one kicked up too much of a fuss. People are protesting now because the level of destruction that the stadiums will cause is far greater than those previous land uses... cutting down 150-year-old trees, digging up an underground natural spring... damage like that can't be reversed or offset once it's done.

4. People who are like "The Olympic stadiums have to happen - just get out of their way!" seem to be forgetting that the way the Olympics is currently structured in terms of contractual agreements with the International Olympics Committee etc, the economic benefits overwhelmingly flow to big corporations and mega-wealthy elites. Big developers/construction companies profit off the lucrative blank cheque construction projects... Major media corporations profit off the lucrative advertising contracts... Parasitic business models like Airbnb profit off the conversion of homes into hotel rooms... I could go on all day.

The point is: You've been sold a lie. You're told hosting the Olympics is 'good for the economy' but in reality it's good for multinational corporations and bad for locals.

And don't spin me that nonsense about how even though it's a huge waste of money the Olympics is still ok because "it creates jobs" If a government spends $5 billion or $10 billion on ANYTHING it's gonna create a lot of jobs. But I'd rather they created jobs building housing for the homeless or improving energy security than this nonsense.

Right now, major party politicians and business elites are manipulating you into thinking the Olympics is a good deal for Queenslanders when actually it's a hospital pass that will cause serious long-term economic harm to the state.

I'm glad people have been protesting, and I'm glad people will continue protesting over the coming years.

The government signed us up to host the Olympics without asking Queenslanders if we even wanted it. Then they committed billions towards building stadiums we don't actually need after they promised not to.

If we don't protest when they screw over ordinary people like this, when WILL we step up and demand change?

ONE MORE LITTLE ADDENDUM COS MULTIPLE PEOPLE ARE BRINGING THIS UP:
I have a lot of contempt for the modern Labor party. I think they've done heaps of terrible things for this state and the country as a whole and have generally led us in the wrong direction.

But the factual reality is that the original proponents of Brisbane hosting the Olympics were the Liberal National Party lord mayor and councillors of Brisbane City Council. The LNP started strongly pushing a Brisbane Olympics almost a decade ago. QLD Labor was initially resistant, but then LNP Mayor Adrian Schrinner and former LNP Mayor Graham Quirk got Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison on board.
Both the LNP-controlled Brisbane City Council and the Liberal federal government started pressuring Queensland Labor to back the Olympics and eventually Palaszczuk signed us up for it. That was a terrible decision and she deserves to be criticised for it. But all this LNP spin that "Labor got us into this mess" is ignoring the fact that the LNP were calling for a Brisbane Olympics first and drove the bid to host.

By all means be angry at Labor, but don't let the LNP off the hook.

Signing up for the Olympics was a big mistake, and both the major parties are equally to blame.

ORIGINAL POST:
Apparently police are trying to forcibly move on Aboriginal people from their campsite in the next few hours (even though the premier previously suggested this wouldn't happen until next week)

26/04/2026

Some local Yugambeh history 🦅👣

Each day, my mum, Joyce Frater (Byerley), sits beside the river she has called home for most of her 94 years, the Broadwater at Southport.

This is the place where she played, learned, and grew up alongside many other First Nations families. She once lived on a houseboat at Macintosh Island with her husband, where they fished and passed down important cultural skills to their children, from fishing, to gathering oysters from the rocks, to picking berries.

Every day, she shares stories of this Country, the changes she has witnessed, the growth of the Gold Coast, and the deep connections with families from the Gold Coast and Tweed River. She tells these stories to her children, Trish, Geoff, Erica, and Linda, who still live on Country. Ann is in Perth, and Jocelyn continues to stay connected to culture while advocating for Mob in Evans Head.

Joyce grew up in Southport on Ferry Road with her mum, Lena Byerley (Bostock), and her brothers and sisters. She is the only one who remained in Southport. Her sister Margaret moved to North Queensland with her husband Lennard Graham, where they raised their children John, Peter, and Judith in Ayr. Shirley moved to Brisbane and had three children, Cheryl, Shane, and Jason. William moved to Sydney, Tom to Adelaide (his children Diane and Corina reconnected with family a few years ago), and Uncle Kenny returned to northern New South Wales, staying connected with family there while always travelling back home with his children Dion, Dwyane, Megan, and Tammy.

Mum may not be as quick on her feet as she once was, but her mind is strong, and her love for sharing stories remains as powerful as ever.

These stories, this history, this connection to Country, they live on through her.

- by Aunty Erica Eurell