Helen Cunningham, 1791, 1839, botanist, explorer.
Best remembered to us for his expeditions.
His contribution to South East Queensland is quite profound.
But before you can truly understand his contribution,
you need to take a step back to the beginning of European settlement at Morton Bay.
To understand European settlement in South East Queensland, we've come to Brisbane.
It was in the early 1800s that the good people of Sydney had petitioned the British government
and the colonial administration.
They wanted to get rid of their riffraff.
They wanted the convicts moved away from this good old Sydney town.
So it was the government inquiry that charged John Oxley with the responsibility
of finding a new location.
It was in 1823 that he explored Morton Bay.
And when he arrived here, he was greeted by a group of aboriginals.
To his surprise, three of them were actually Europeans.
There were sailors or actually timbermen or lumberjacks
that had blown north in a storm from Sydney to Brisbane and been shipwrecked.
They could show Oxley around.
They showed him where the Brisbane River was.
They showed him some of the features and locations.
So Oxley reported back to the government of the day
that this was a location he thought would be the best location for a penal colony.
When the colony was established, Oxley and Cunningham
went on an expedition to explore the Brisbane River.
And on that expedition, they could see the great dividing range in the distance.
And it must have occurred to them at the time
that they needed to understand what was beyond the range
and even if there was a way or a gap or a pass to it.
That would lead to an expedition in 1827 by Alan Cunningham.
It would be the longest expedition he'd undertaken in his career.
He would set off from Maitland about 800 kilometres south of here
and he would come up and discover what would now know as the Darling Downs.
It was four million acres of beautiful agricultural country.
He reported back to the colonial administration at the time of what he'd found.
He talked about the timber. He talked about the soils.
But what he also reported back that he thought he'd found,
a pass down to Morton Bay,
the pass was Spice's Gap.
This is the Spice's Gap Road.
And this is the pass that Alan Cunningham had reported
that would be a possible drain route between the Darling Downs
and the Morton Bay Penal Colony.
It was the Darling Downs, the area behind me
that was going to fuel the economy of the new colony.
But when this area was established and settled,
they had to take the woolen timber, 800 kilometres,
back down overland to Maitland and then down to the coast at Newcastle.
They did this for eight years and it wasn't sustainable.
The stores and provisions had to come back the same way.
The need for a road or an access down to the coast,
150 kilometres away, was really, really on.
And it was Spice's Gap Road that was going to provide that important link.
It was a stockman by the name of Henry Applin
who would rediscover Cunningham Spice's Gap Pass
about six years later in 1847.
It was a much needed link between the Darling Downs
and the Morton Bay Penal Colony.
1828, and Alan Cunningham returns to the colony.
He leads an expedition of eight to this location where we are now
and they'll use this as a staging post
before they go and explore any further.
Now, two other members of the team worth noting
is Captain Patrick Logan.
Now, Logan is the commandant of the Penal Colony,
reputation for handing out very harsh punishment to the convicts,
but an explorer in his own right
and has been through this area before.
But Logan gives us an appreciation
just how dangerous these expeditions can be.
1830, two years after this expedition,
he's murdered exploring the headwaters of the Brisbane River.
The other expedition member worth noting is Charles Fraser.
Now, Charles Fraser is a colonial botanist
and his jobs report back on the suitability of the soils
and the general environment for further settlement and agriculture.
But it's from this location that they'll start exploring
to the ranges and further beyond.
Cunningham leads the expedition from Morton Bay
across the coastal flats to these ranges behind us,
the Great Dividing Ranges.
They explore along the Dividing Range
and they're looking for, among other things, Spices Gap.
They're looking for the eastern or the coastal connection
of the Spices Gap.
They find a gap that's behind me
and they think it could be Spices Gap,
but they're not entirely sure.
Cunningham is not sure that he's found Spices Gap.
So they explore further north, finding nothing.
So their doubts prove to be correct.
This is not Spices Gap behind us.
It's later to be known as Cunningham's Gap.
And this is Cunningham's Gap today.
But until the 1930s, there was nothing more than a bridal route.
The rising popularity of the motor vehicle
saw the communities of the Darling Downs
and the Fascifern Valley combine efforts
to start planning a more permanent road.
And when the State Highway Authority got involved in the late 30s,
the planning really started gathering momentum.
But it'd be in 1950s before the road would be actually complete
and it would then become the main link between Brisbane
and the southern states of Australia.
And it was named Cunningham's Highway
in recognition to the contribution Alan Cunningham had made
to this area.
This pass would remain an important link
until the 1930s.
But it won't be until the 1950s
when maintenance would stop completely,
but still remain a important access track
because a telegraph went through here
and that wasn't removed until 1972.
Cunningham's here when the Colleen is established.
He helps Oxley explore the Brisbane River.
He comes overland a few years later
and discovers the Darling Downs.
He discovers a possible dry route down to Morton Bay.
He discovers a gap, a second pass a year later.
But one of the things we do understand is that
no one takes up land in the Darling Downs
for 15 years after you discover them.
No white man goes near Spice's Gap for another 20 years.
And it'll be 100 years before anybody
really tries to make Cunningham's Gap a pass.
But what Cunningham did was pave the way.
He was a botanist. His love was botany.
But we remember him as an explorer
and he paved the way and he saw the potential of this area.
MUSIC
Alan Cunningham.
What becomes of the man?
Well after the 1828 expedition a few years later
he returns to England.
In 1832 the colonial botanist Charles Fraser
passes away in Sydney
so they offer Alan Cunningham the position.
He declines in favour of his brother Richard Cunningham
who's also a botanist.
Richard arrives in the colony in 1833
but unfortunately it's killed in a skirmish
with the Aboriginals in 1835.
Alan Cunningham is then again offered the position
which this time he accepts
arriving somewhere in 1837.
But unfortunately he's very disappointed with his position.
He's really the superintendent of the market garden.
His primary job is growing vegetables
for the governor and the public dignitaries.
So he resigns a few months later,
goes to New Zealand on an expedition in 1838
pursuing his love of botany
and in 1839 returns to the colony in Australia
hoping to sail on a beagle on another expedition.
But Alan Cunningham's health has started to fail him
and by mid-1839 he passes away.
His remains are re-interned in the 1900s
to a noblisk at the Potanical Gardens in Sydney.
A befitting place for a man whose love was really botany
but his expeditions were the significant story
that be told in Australia.
Hope you enjoyed our story.
Why don't you join us while we explore Australia?
