Police have evicted protesters from a former Aboriginal reserve, south-west of Brisbane, making way for a property developer to start work on the site after a years-long standoff.
The Gunggari and Wakka Wakka woman Kris Bunda cried as she spoke of makeshift homes being demolished and police removing protesters at Deebing Creek at about 4am on Tuesday.
“They’ve taken all of the protesters off site here this morning,” she told Guardian Australia. “Oh god, I can hear the machines now.
“We have a three-year-old who was on site this morning. [He] and his mother ended up being transported to [the police station]. They’re now in a safe place but they have nowhere to go, they have no home.”
Protesters had been living at the site since at least 2020 in an improvised camp. When Guardian Australia visited in 2022, there were a dozen to 20 people occupying the site at any one time. Six were reportedly present on Tuesday morning when police arrived.
Developer AVJennings, which has promised to incorporate a cultural centre in the housing estate planned for the site, said the move to evict protesters had come after the issue of several trespass notices and years of consultation.
Phil Kearns, the chief executive of AVJennings, said the traditional owners were the Yuggera Ugarapul People (YUP) “who are supportive of the proposed residential project”.
“AVJennings has been engaging with the YUP since 2017 and we have full support from the Traditional Owners, the Department of Seniors, Disability Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (DATSIP) and more specifically, the Cultural Heritage Unit,” Kearns said.
The company reiterated it had no plans to build upon the former mission – which is heritage-listed in recognition of the “great significance” it holds for Aboriginal people – but on the surrounding bushland which protesters believe contains the unmarked remains of ancestors.
Bunda, known as Yowie, had been declared chief protector of the bones and cemetery, guarding an area they say was the site of mass killings.
As of midday, Yowie said the machines had stopped and they were seeking “some form of mediation” with another elder.
“What I’ve seen this morning is a clear disregard for our human rights as Aboriginal people,” she said.
Carla Davidson-Fewquandie, a Yuggera and Kullilli woman, said she was “disgusted” by what had occurred.
She said native title and Indigenous land use agreements didn’t include all the many tribes associated with the site.
“I can see the hurt and the grief in my elders’ eyes. They’re here crying,” she said. “We don’t want the disruption of our land.
“Some of our own people, the native title mob, have actually agreed on this and they don’t represent us.”
The Ugarapul traditional owner, Kevin Anderson, said: “If there was a massacre out there, my old people would have told me and my father would have told me. There is no way my grandfather would have built his hut on Deebing Creek near a massacre site.”
Ipswich City council referred a development application for a childcare centre at the site back to the state government.
Mayor Teresa Harding said the move reflected sensitivities around this development in some community sections.
“There are two Indigenous groups who both have different accounts of the cultural history of this site, making it extremely difficult for council to navigate this complex issue,” Harding said.
A Queensland police spokesperson said they were assisting a property developer on Grampian Drive at Deebing Creek and had arrested a protester on an “unrelated matter”.
“Local police have engaged and liaised with all interested parties including traditional owners of the land who are also on site,” they said.
“Police continue to monitor the situation in respect to protest activity.”
The former mission site sits within the Ripley Valley priority development area, proclaimed by the Queensland government as “one of the largest urban growth areas in Australia”.
The scheme aims to develop up to 50,000 homes for 120,000 people.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report.
