April 27, 2017
Timbertowners with any sort of connection to Googa Creek School or the Googa Creek district – and anyone else who’d like to visit a little-seen part of the South Burnett – are being invited to come along to a bush picnic in May.
The Blackbutt And District Tourism And Heritage Association (BDTHA) will be running a Googa Googa Creek Bush Picnic on the former school’s cricket pitch from 10:00am on Sunday, May 28.
Googa Creek is located south of Blackbutt, and the Googa Creek School operated there from 1921 to 1950 to provide education for the children of timber getters and farmers in the area.
While the school is now long gone, a similar event in 2015 saw former students from the Ashby, Morgenstern and Stewart families attend, as well as many “new” locals and their families.
The picnic was held around the old cricket pitch and many stories emerged about the history of the area, including placing the school site.
The school’s tennis court, vegetable garden and horse paddock were also pointed out to visitors by the former students, and a barbecue lunch was followed by poetry recitals and singing.
Then day concluded with a sign created by Blackbutt woodworkers being erected near the roadside to mark the old school site.
The BDTHA have been trying to gather more photos and stories to properly record the history of the Googa Creek area ever since, and they’ll be holding this year’s bush picnic to see what other information they can discover.
A $10 admission will cover lunch, sweets, a cold drink and coffee, and picnic goers should BYO chair and a musical instrument (if they can play one).
To find the school, turn at Blackbutt’s Radnor Hotel and follow the bitumen Crows Nest Road for 6km before turning left into the gravelled Googa Creek Road for 2km, where the road changes to Douglas Road.
Continue on Douglas Road for a further 3km, then veer right at Stewart Road (ie do not turn left into Stewart Road, just veer to the right) and travel a further kilometre to reach the former school site.
Signposts will be erected on the day to guide visitors, but to help plan the catering RSVPs would be appreciated by May 15.
They can be made by phoning Jackie on 0438-785-009 or by emailing her.
