Located in south-east Queensland, the Bunya Mountains hold immense cultural and environmental significance. The Bunya Mountains are home to a unique assemblage of plants, animals and ecosystems including more than 30 rare and threatened species. It is one of the few places in south-east Queensland where an Aboriginal fire-managed cultural landscape is evident.
For many thousands of years, Aboriginal people from across the region gathered together on the mountains to celebrate the bountiful harvest of the bunya pines on the mountain. The gathering, known as the Bonye Bonye festival, was held in alignment with the bumper bunya nut crop. This occurred roughly every three years and was a time of feasting, ceremony, marriage, dispute settlement and trade.
The Bunya Mountains Murri Rangers maintain areas of traditional importance and help conserve and protect the natural and cultural resources of the Mountains. Their duties include managing wildlife management, cultural sites and threatened grassland bald ecosystems which developed as a direct result of traditional Aboriginal burning practices. The rangers also engage Indigenous communities and youth about the cultural heritage and traditional connections to country on the Bunya Mountains.
