Goondiwindi
War Memorial Park Monument
Is an Australian town of approximately 5,629 people. The town has an annual population growth of 1.4% over the year. The name Goondiwindi derives from a local Aboriginal word meaning, “the resting place of the birds”.
History
Goondiwindi was first proclaimed a Municipality on 20 October 1888. The town boundaries have not altered to this day, and before Federation the town served as one of few border crossings between Queensland and New South Wales. The Customs House which was used in that era stands today and is now a museum open for tourists. The most famous resident of Goondiwindi was Gunsynd, a Thoroughbred race horse known as “The Goondiwindi Grey”, ridden by Tim Lowe, in the late 1960s and early 1970s Gunsynd had 29 wins including the 1971 Epsom Handicap and the 1972 Cox Plate and came third in the 1972 Melbourne Cup. The name “Gunsynd” came from Goondiwindi Syndicate (Gun= Goondiwindi, Synd= Syndicate). A statue of Gunsynd is located in a park in the town centre.
Geography
The town is situated on the MacIntyre River in Queensland near the New South Wales border, 350 kilometres (220 mi) south west of the Queensland state capital, Brisbane. The twin town of Boggabilla is located a short distance away on the New South Wales side of the border. Most of the area surrounding the town is farmland.
Transport
The town is a major transport nexus for trucks and other traffic travelling between the southern states and Queensland. The Newell, Leichhardt, Gore, Cunningham, Barwon and Bruxner Highways all merge at Goondiwindi or close by. The town is also the administrative centre for the Goondiwindi Region. Goondiwindi is also a popular stopping point for interstate travellers with an abundance of well appointed motels and restaurants.
Education
The town houses three schools, a public primary school, a private primary school and a public high school. Each of these schools are highly established, have excellent ties with the community and provides generous contributions to the community and surrounding areas. Goondiwindi State High School won the Showcase award for 2006, an award dedicated to schools displaying excellence in all areas.
Retailers
Goondiwindi has many large retailers, including a Bilo, a Mitre 10 Home & Trade and a Foodworks (Goondiwindi Co Op).
Farming
Goondiwindi is also a major centre for agricultural production with the district producing and growing a diverse range of crops and fibres. The mainstays of the local economy are anything from wool and beef production through to the growing of cotton, sorghum and corn in the summer period. The winter crop growing season sees the planting of wheat, barley and chickpeas. Average rainfall for this region is 525 millimetres (20.7 in) per annum.
Attractions
The town of Goondiwindi also boasts the large man made Natural Heritage and Water Park. The development of the Park is a result of the closure of Boobera Lagoon, to power boats, on indigenous cultural grounds. The Lagoon had been a favourite spot for waterskiing for the local area and was the only suitable waterbody for the purpose. As a result of initiatives by the former Goondiwindi Town Council, the Federal Government through Environment Australia, made a decision to fund a Natural Heritage & Water Park, to make available skiing and boating facilities and to provide a focal point for tourism and recreation in the town and district.
The 210 ha recreational water park opened early in 2004 and offers plenty of activities for all ages. The purpose built 3 km water channel provides great opportunities for water sports of all kinds including waterskiing, wakeboarding, canoeing and boating. It is also a good place to view the vast bird life, have a picnic or barbecue or swim at the “designated” area. Remedial works undertaken at the waterpark in 2008 have now proven to alleviate the leakage issues which saw the park dry for a period of time.
Goondiwindi also boasts a very active sporting community which has active participants in such diverse sports as, rugby union, rugby league, cricket, golf, tennis, Australian football, netball, swimming etc. The town has also recently built a large indoor gymnasium for use by the general public and school groups. One of the major sporting highlights is the annual “Hell Of The West” triathlon which is run in February of each year and is supported by competitors from all over Australia. Boobera Lagoon is a permanent water hole to the west of the town. Bendidee National Park is located a short drive to the north east of the town.
Media
Statue of Gunsynd, The Goondiwindi Grey.
Goondiwindi publishes a weekly newspaper called The Goondiwindi Argus. Goondiwindi also has a number of radio stations including Rebel FM and Breeze FM.
Goondiwindi Shire
Goondiwindi, a rural town of over 5600 people, is on the northern side of the Macintyre River, which forms part of the New South Wales border. It is situated on the Newell Highway, and is 300 km south-west of Brisbane. The town’s name was derived from the Gundawindi pastoral run (c1838), a name thought to be derived from an Aboriginal expression referring to wild duck or a resting place for birds. The Gundawindi, Callandoon and Umbercollie pastoral runs had a common boundary point, which became a stopping place for teamsters. A rudimentary settlement arose, and in 1858 a township was surveyed, with the first town blocks auctioned the following year. A court house (1862) and a public school (1864) confirmed the town’s emergence as a place of settlement. A border customs house was opened at about this time. Local government – the Waggamba division – was proclaimed in 1879, and a telegraph link to Warwick established in 1872.
The first of several bridges over the Macintyre River opened in 1878, replacing a ferry service. This timber structure was sturdy enough to withstand the Macintyre’s severe floods, existing until 1914 when traffic volumes warranted erection of a bigger steel structure. By the early 1880s Goondiwindi had Presbyterian (1875) and Anglican (1882) church buildings, and a school of arts. In 1888 the Goondiwindi Town municipality was established, by severance from the surrounding Waggamba Shire, a situation which was reversed in 2008. By 1903 Goondiwindi had a population of about 800 people, and the Australian Handbook for that year described the town as follows:
Goondiwindi electorate of Carnarvon, a municipal town with post office, money-order and savings bank office and telegraph station, in the county of Marsh, and electorate of Carnarvon, on the borders of New South Wales and Queensland, lying distant from Brisbane about 200 miles SW., and from Warwick, 140 miles, and situated on the north bank of the Barwon or Municipal river. It was proclaimed Oct. 12, 1888. Municipal area 5 2/3 square miles, 143 dwelling, 27 miles of roads and streets. Ratable value of property £26,730. A mail coach runs bi-weekly to Warwick, fare 50s. There are five hotels, Commercial, Royal, Queen’s Arms, Queensland, and Victoria, five stores, and several tradesmen’s premises, a court-house, Espiscopal, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches, a primary school a branch of the N.S. Wales Bank Masonic lodge, Oddfellows lodge (M.U.), a school of art, with library of 891 vols., a jockey club, divisional hall, hospital, police quarters and there is here a public crossing – place by bridge across the Macintyre River to N.S. Wales. It is the chief crossing place for stock from Central Queensland to N.S. Wales. The large bridge connecting the two colonies was finished in June, 1880, and is called the Goondiwindi and Border Bridge. It has been built at the expense of both colonies, but on the responsibility of Queensland. An inspector of customs for N.S. Wales is stationed here. Two saw-mills are in the vicinity. Teamsters go regularly to Cambooya and Warwick. The soil is very suitable for growing cotton, oranges, grapes, and other fruit, and no doubt if the country were properly irrigated by the noble stream running through it, both horticultural and agricultural operations to a large extent could be carried on. Formation alluvial. Population, 732 (census 1901). Newspaper: McIntyre Herald.
Goondiwindi - War Memorial Park Gates
Whilst the railway connection from Warwick (1908) was an important link and a stimulant for population growth, it was the motor-vehicle age which proved more important to Goondiwindi’s development, located as it is at the hub of roads from New England and Warwick and a key inland route between Brisbane and the southern capitals. The rail and road transport industry to some extent protected Goondiwindi from the economic effect of prickly pear infestation which in 1923 was reported as being quite dense in the surrounding Waggamba Shire.
During the 1920s-60s Goondiwindi acquired numerous civic improvements and facilities: reticulated water (1922), sewerage (1942), protective levee banks (1968), a civic centre (1937), an Olympic swimming pool (1963) and a state high school (1964). Throughout the postwar years Goondiwindi’s population increased steadily, doubling to 5500 in the period from 1947-2001. Goondiwindi became a well-known stop over with interstate truckers and inland drive tourists alike. Further prominence derived from Gunsynd, the locally-trained champion colt that won 29 of 54 starts in major races in a remarkable run from 1968 to 1972. The ‘Goondiwindi Grey’ is commemorated by a large statue on a levee bank as motorists enter the town.
Goondiwindi has an airport, visitor information centre, and nine motels. Residents are served by a race course, golf course, swimming pool, showground, botanic gardens, eight churches, state primary and high schools (1864, 19640), a Catholic primary school (1911), a community centre and a hospital. A history museum is in the heritage-listed customs house. The Art Deco civic centre (1937) in Marshall Street and the war memorial (1922) are also heritage-listed. Goondiwindi thrives on the cotton crop and as a pivotal link in the highway systems of eastern Australia. The Newell, from the south, and the Bruxner from the east terminate here, while the Cunningham, Barwon and Leichhardt highways start here. So great is the truck traffic, most of it in ‘Double B’ vehicles, that the town was bypassed in 1992, necessitating a second road bridge over the Macintyre River.
The Tomkins incident
On 30 November 2004 was an attack by two white farmers on two Aboriginal boys found trespassing on their property near Goondiwindi, a town on the border of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. David and Clint Tomkins, a father and son managing the farm, allegedly beat Alan Boland and Bevan Bartman and dragged Boland around the property with a noose around his neck. The incident occurred just four days after riots in the Aboriginal community of Palm Island, off the north Queensland coast, over the suspicious death of an Aboriginal man in police custody. The local Aboriginal community was outraged when the Tomkins were handed down a A$500 fine each for their treatment of the four boys, who themselves were charged with break, enter and steal. The event made headlines in countries around the world, including the UK.
The assault
Queensland National Bank in Goondiwindi, Queensland, 1939
On November 2004, four Indigenous boys from the Toomelah Aboriginal Mission swam across the Macintyre River to a nearby Queensland property managed by David Hilary Tomkins (then 44 years old) and his son Clint Williams Tomkins (then 23 years old). The four boys, Alan Boland (16), Bevan “BJ” Bartman (19), Reg McGrady (23) and Jade, had said that they had previously bought marijuana from the Tomkins but had recently begun stealing it from the property instead. The four boys broke into a building with the intention of stealing from a hydroponic crop inside, but were discovered by the Tomkins. McGrady and Jade escaped to the other side of the river, but the other two, Bartman and Boland, were caught by the Tomkins.
Bartman and Boland allege that the Tomkins pulled Boland back through the river, stripped him naked, bound his wrists and then dragged him up an embankment by a rope tied around his neck. They also allege the Tomkins tied Bartman to a tree and forced him to watch as they threatened to cut off Boland’s toes with a pair of pliers and beat them both with sticks. Bartman has said he managed to escape after he faked an asthma attack while he was being untied from the tree. He then ran back through the bush and swam across the river. Boland said the two Tomkins then walked into the farmhouse and returned with a double-barrelled shotgun and 0.22-calibre rifle, loaded both in front of Boland and pressed the guns to either side of his temples, yelled racist taunts and hammered the boy’s face with their gun butts. The Tomkins called the police and allegedly removed the noose from Boland’s neck before they arrived. The police took Boland to Goondiwindi police station and charged him with break and enter.
Police behaviour
Boland’s family have said the police questioned Boland for three hours until legal representation from Legal Aid arrived. The representative allegedly said that Boland was in no condition to give a statement, and ordered the boy be taken to hospital to be treated for his injuries, which he considered were extremely severe. Boland’s family have said Boland’s face was bruised and swollen, he had suffered several cuts on his body from being dragged around and had rope burns around his neck. Boland’s family have said Boland was still in shock and vomited repeatedly on the way to the hospital. At the local Goondiwindi hospital a nurse attended Boland, but the doctor on duty refused to see him, despite the gravity of his injuries, according to Boland’s family. At one stage Boland and one of the Tomkins, who had broken his arm in the fracas, were sitting together in the same treatment room. Boland was then taken by the police to a holding cell in Tenterfield.
The prosecution
Marooned on the front verandah of a home in Goondiwindi, Queensland, 1921
The court case was held on 18 May 2005. At 9.30 am, two hours before the case, the police prosecutor told Boland’s mother Rosalyn, Toomelah elder Ada Jarrett and a Toowoomba Legal Aid representative that the Tomkins would only get a fine or a good behaviour bond, according to Mrs Boland and Jarrett. According to Jarrett and Mrs Boland, a police sergeant and the prosecutor then repeatedly pressured them for another two hours to sign statements dropping the more serious charge of assault occasioning bodily harm in company, for which there is a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail. The sergeant and prosecutor claimed the Tomkins would walk free if Boland didn’t arrive at the courthouse on time, said Jarrett and Mrs Boland. While Jarrett and Mrs Boland were waiting with the police prosecutor, the police transporting Allan from Tenterfield detoured by an indirect route until Jarrett and Mrs Boland agreed to drop the assault occasioning bodily harm charge, according to Boland.
After Mrs Boland, Jarrett and the Legal Aid representative had signed statements to drop the assault occasioning bodily harm charge, the court case proceeded with only a common assault charge brought against the Tomkins. Mrs Boland and Jarrett said they received assurances from the prosecutor that he would show photographs of the boys’ injuries, including the rope marks around Boland’s neck, and would present evidence of the marijuana crop growing on the Tomkins’ property. The prosecutor also said he would ask for a jail term for the Tomkins, according to Mrs Boland and Jarrett.
The verdict
Major flooding affected the town in 1921
A large number of indigenous relatives and residents from Toomelah, Boggabilla and Moree had turned up to witness the court’s proceedings, as had “Sugar” Ray Robinson, former deputy chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Local Aboriginal leader Bert Button said the charge of assault causing bodily harm in company was an outrage. He demanded the two men be given murder charges. At the hearing, held before magistrate Dennis Beutel, the Tomkins pleaded guilty to common assault. The prosecutor representing the four Toomelah boys did not produce photographs of the boys’ injuries nor use their testimonies, according to Jarrett. The prosecutor also failed to mention the drugs on the Tomkins’ property.
The UK’s Daily Telegraph reported that the Tomkins’ defence lawyer, Robbie Davis, had said his clients had become fed up with frequent break-ins on the farm and that they had used “reasonable force” to restrain Boland. Davis said the Tomkins were wrong to tie a noose around Boland’s neck. “It’s a pity they didn’t have the hindsight [sic] to put a rope around his waist and not his neck,” he told the court. “This is not a racial event. It would have been the same if it had been a white youth.” The Tomkins were fined A$500 each, and ordered to pay A$300 each to the victim. For a common assault charge, up to three years imprisonment is possible.
Outside the court house, the victims’ relatives were outraged and began yelling abuse at the police and the Tomkins, who were led out under heavy police guard. Protesters waved placards declaring “One law for whites and one law for blacks — still” and “This is KKK land”. The police had already called in a number of extra squad cars and reinforcements, including a SWAT team that was stationed around the courthouse. ATSIC’s Robinson called on Queensland Premier Peter Beattie to investigate the case and the actions of the police. Local leader Bert Button said, “The justice system stinks. It’s saying it’s all right for non-Indigenous people to go and put a rope around someone’s neck and drag them up and down a river and give them a flogging.” The Tomkins spent the night under police protection.
Aftermath
Convent at Goondiwindi, Queensland, 1924
There was no appeal brought against the criminal case decision by the victims. The Toomelah community was devastated by the decision, particularly its leader, the elder Jarrett, who had spent the year working on a committee with police to improve relations with the local indigenous communities. During an interview after the court decision, an openly weeping Jarrett told a TV reporter, “If you drag a dog with a rope you go to jail. If that had been a white kid and blackfellas had done it, they would have locked them up and thrown away the key. Our people have no justice, they have no hope. I thought we were treated as equals in this country, but I was wrong.”
Premier Beattie did not order an investigation into the verdict or the actions of the police. The police never raided the Tomkins’ property for drugs. The Tomkins were never charged with possession, distribution or growing marijuana. After the guilty verdict David Tomkins told the Seven Network that he would do it again if confronted with the same situation. He said it was the third time in two years that his home had been broken into, and that he only wanted to detain Boland, according to an AAP report. “My proud home keeps getting broken into and robbed,” said Tomkins. “All I did was detain one of the criminals for the police.”
Yelarbon
Is a small town in south-central Queensland on the Dumaresq River. It sits on the Cunningham Highway midway between Goondiwindi and Inglewood. At the 2006 census, Yelarbon had a population of 448. Yelarbon is an Aboriginal Australian word meaning water lilies growing in a lagoon. It was the first place in Queensland to grow tobacco commercially. Nowadays, cattle and sheep are raised, and cereal crops are grown. A major employer in Yelarbon is the A. E. Girle and Sons sawmill.
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