Ah yes the “n” is silent, another one that has a lot of confusion around it is Beerwah pronounced Beer-war. Cheers Shane.

@@shanefrizzo I also got the vowel sound wrong.

That version that is on the plaque at Mary Cairncross scenic reserve is from the Jinibura tribe and since Mary Cairncross park is in Jinibura country the council have posted that version there. The story I have told here is from the Gubbi Gubbi people. The Gubbi Gubbi people and the Jinibura people are neighbouring tribes with a common boundary running north south through the Glasshouse Mountains. That boundary was originally a walking track and when white man came on horseback they followed that same original path that later on became Old Gympie Road as we know it today. The Jinibura tribes traditional country is the western side and mainly includes the Blackall Ranges while the Gubbi Gubbi tribe are the traditional custodians of the eastern side taking in the coastal plains.

Thank you. I thought that might be the case. Thank you for the interesting background info. I find it interesting that Coonowrin and Coolum have some similarities, including the first part of their names, and they were both struck by Ninderry’s club (fatally in the case of Coolum) over disputes about women.

The name that the aborigines used is lost and forgotten, Wild horse is a modern day name we all use, The name wild horse came about because of the many wild brumbies that are still in the area left behind after a failed government farming scheme for returned world war 1 soldiers. After world war 1 the government gave plots of land about 20-40 acres in size to returned soldiers for the purpose of farming mainly tobacco and pineapples. Almost all of the returned soldiers found it too difficult to continue farming mainly because a lot of them were worn out from going to war beforehand. Most of them walked away from the land and abandoned everything such as horses and any buildings they built mainly bark hut type houses with earthen floors. The government then took back the abandoned farms and planted pine trees on the land now known as the Beerburrum forestry. However some of the soldiers stayed on the land and to this day the descendants of the original soldiers are still farming this land. That’s why you sometimes see farms in the middle of the forestry. In the old days most people planted a mango tree in the back yard, and if you drive around the Beerburrum forestry today you can still see these 100+ year old mango trees where once a returned soldier settled on his government granted land to try and make a go of it.

@@shanefrizzo now there a few strawberry farm's and pineapple farms around there. Pity there's no Brumbies now 🙂

@@datwistyman the brumbies are still there, concentrated mainly around wild horse mountain.