Binna Burra Cultural Landscape, Heritage-listed nature site in Queensland, Australia
Binna Burra Cultural Landscape is a heritage-listed lodge landscape on Binna Burra Road at Binna Burra, in the Scenic Rim Region of Queensland. It began as a tent camp in 1933, and its buildings went up from 1934 to about 1980. The lodge and adjacent accommodation buildings were destroyed in the September 2019 bushfires.
In 1930 Romeo Lahey, who had helped have Lamington National Park gazetted in 1915, met journalist Arthur Groom; together they founded the National Parks Association of Queensland. In 1933 they and four others formed Queensland Holiday Resorts Ltd, and a Christmas tent camp at Binna Burra was booked out at 40, then raised to 80. The company was incorporated on 3 March 1934, and slab cabins followed, built from timber cut on the property.
The name Binna Burra comes from the Yugambeh language and was chosen for the 1933 Christmas camp run by Queensland Holiday Resorts Ltd. That camp, limited to 40 guests but booked out and raised to 80, cost five shillings a day with tents, a cook and guided picnics into Lamington National Park. Romeo Lahey planted a hoop pine as a Christmas tree there, and the ceremony was repeated at the camp's 50th anniversary in 1983.
The site sits at 600 meters elevation with steep pathways, so bring sturdy footwear and weather protection. Access is via various walking trails, so check available routes beforehand.
The flying fox built soon after the company's incorporation in March 1934 hauled baggage about 150 metres up the slope, pulled by a draughthorse turning a horizontal whim; at night it was hung with lanterns. Its base was a tallowwood tree near the Mains Road toilets, about 1.6 km down the road from the lodge.
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