Student Resources

Bankfoot House is built in approximately the middle of the Glasshouse Mountains. This mountain range was named by Captain James Cook on May 17, 1770 after they reminded him of the glass manufacturing factories back in England. But before Captain Cook, the local aboriginals had their story and their own names for all the 15 mountains, these names still apply today. The Glasshouse Mountains are actually the cores of extinct volcanoes.

The Glasshouse region was once protected against farming. On April 19, 1842, Governor Gipps published the Order of Government Gazette. This order reserved the land for Aboriginals and it became known as the Bunya Proclamation. The Bunya Proclamation recognised the importance of the land to the aboriginal people, as they were being forced off the land by the white settlers who came to the region for its fertile land and timber. The Proclamation was designed to protect the land between Mooloolah and Maroochy Rivers. The Proclamation states...

“It having been represented to the Governor that a District exists to the northward of Moreton Bay, in which a fruit-bearing tree abounds, called Bunya or Banya Bunya, and that the Aborigines from considerable distances resort at certain times of the year to this District for the purpose of eating the fruit of the said Tree:- His Excellency is pleased to direct that no Licences be granted for the occupation of any Lands within the said District in which the Bunya or Banya Bunya Tree is found. And notice is hereby given, that the several Crown Commissioners in the New England and Moreton Bay Districts have been instructed to remove any person who may be in an unauthorised occupation of Land whereon the said Bunya or Banya Bunya Trees are to be found. His Excellency has also directed that no Licences to cut Timber be granted within the said Districts.”

The Bunya Proclamation ceased in 1859, after Queensland officially became a state apart from New South Wales. After the Proclamation lapsed settlement on the Sunshine Coast grew rapidly due to the good soil, copious amounts of timber and in 1867, gold was discovered in Gympie. Caloundra gained a reputation as a seaside resort in the 1880s and William Landsborough bought Golden Beach with his earnings from travel in 1882. The Hinterland region was developed for agriculture and finally after World War I, Noosa became known as a holiday spot instead of just the small fishing village it had been up to that point.