Inspirational Landscape Nomination

Place:

Kenilworth Bluff

Location:

Sunshine Coast hinterland

Duwirri from the East – Photograph by Kev Franzi

Description:

The Kenilworth Bluff is most frequently described as ‘majestic’. Geologically is an outlier of the Blackall Range but separated from it by the serpentine incisive action of the Mary River over millennia. Its plateau, several kilometres long, rises above the Mary Valley to a height of 529 metres above sea level. It includes an impressive cliff to the south, a powerful rock outcrop named Duwirri to the north, and the rounded knob called Bloolou to the east. The highest point is Bonoum.

It is visible from a wide area. While it towers above the small town of Kenilworth, it can also be seen from as far away as Gympie and from coastal landforms as far east as the Cooloola Sandpatch, part of the Cooloola National Park.

Much of the upper catchment of the Mary River is on the Blackall Range and, more particularly, among the wonderfully diverse forests of the Conondale Range. The Mary runs northward, to the east of the Bluff, eventually emptying into Hervey Bay in the lee of Fraser Island.

Most of the Bluff retains its natural vegetation (Remnant Vegetation under Queensland legislation) and this, combined with its stark and impressive rock formations, makes it an outstanding feature.

Bluff From My Verandah – Photograph by Kev Franzi

Land Tenure:

A small portion to the south lies within Maroochy Shire and, commendably, this council, in 1992 and 1997, acted to acquire this area [nearly 124 ha] as a Conservation Park, Kenilworth Bluff / Wilcox Family Park. The Maroochy Shire Strategic Plan designates Conservation as the Preferred Dominant Land Use.

Why it is Inspirational:

Many will describe the Bluff as having a ‘powerful presence’ but how does one quantify this? Perhaps it’s why it’s not uncommon to find artist with easel at any one of a number of vantage points, Perhaps it has to do with the spectacular light on the western side just before sunset.

Duwirri Sunset– Photograph by Birgit Kehr, photojournalist, as featured on cover of her Kenilworth – a photo essay… 2004

Seasons Of Duwirri – Photographs by Maggie Gall

I attach photographs, paintings, and a verse as examples of various aspects as captured by several photographers, artists and poets.

It is a much-photographed landmark.

Spiritual / Contemplative:

 To walk on the summit is generally described as having the feel of a lost world, a world where the hand of man rests lightly on the landscape.

While the walk is popular, it is rather difficult. At no time in my wanderings on the Bluff have I come across other walkers. It provides a wonderful communion of walkers and a very natural environment.

One walker recently commented on the absence of lantana on the southern summit. Lantana (lantana camara) is an invasive introduced plant, now widespread through the area, frequently along road edges, clearings and gullies, but through native forests as well. While it is found on the slopes of the Bluff, its absence on the southern summit adds to the sense of a walk back in time, a decidedly pre-European feel.

Duwirri – Painting by Maggie Gall

Eastern View – Photograph by Arkin Mackay

Biodiversity:

Several years ago, botanist Ann Moran compiled a huge list of plants on just a brief trip to part of the Bluff. She expressed continual surprise at many of the species she found, as the area acts as a kind of botanical refugia. Other features include a tea-tree (Melaleuca quinquinervia) swamp on the summit toward the north-east and an impressive episodic waterfall towards the south-east. Part of this swamp is fringed with Bungwall Fern (Blechnum indicum), an important food plant for indigenous Australians.

View from the Southern End by Arkin Mackay

Indigenous Cultural Significance:

The Bluff lay on the pathway from the coast out to Rocky Hole Creek, which was apparently the source of good rock for tools. University of Queensland Anthropologist Sue Davies has made a number of visits to the summit and has catalogued a number of signs of visitation and usage. Various sources refer to burial remains being found in a cleft in a rock formation in the seventies.

Duwirri – Poem by Ian Mackay, poet, from Kenilworth… a photo essay

Duwirri, the impressively powerful rock outcrop at the northern end of the Bluff was reputedly used to herd wallabies to their death. Local legend has it that, much later, it was a site where aboriginal people met a similar fate at the hands of white settlers.

In conversation some years ago, Michael Strong, curator of the Abbey Museum [Toorbul] and a keen student of indigenous history, described the Kenilworth Bluff as ‘perhaps the most significant site between the coast and the Bunya Mountains.’

A bora ring was recorded as being at Moy Pocket, just to the south-east of the Bluff

Corridor Significance:

With its close proximity to the Conondale Range forest mosaic, and reaching almost down to the Mary River, the significance of the heavily vegetated Bluff as a conservation corridor is well recognised. It is one of just a few places where forests make contact with the river, which is then in contact [via various tributaries] to the forests of the Blackall Range.

Cover page of The Kenilworth Bluff… a preliminary but Urgent Plea for Protection – Submission by the Moy Pocket and Lower Kenilworth Progress Association, November 1990

Memories of Bluff’s Lost World– Article by Stan Tutt OAM, historian,
from Sunshine Coast Daily, Sept 1990

Bloolou – Photograph by Arkin Mackay