German Missionaries in Australia

The history of race relations between early settlers and indigenous people in the Logan district has been recorded by Europeans in government records, newspapers, manuscripts and journals, amounting to a fairly ethnocentric record of the contact between the pastoralists, the native police and the Yugambeh. In some instances the records contradict each other, a reminder that they present perspectives and recollections, rather than objective records of events. However, Yugambeh people themselves have used the extant records to reconstruct an Indigenous perspective on the early settlement of the Logan district. The limited documents available suggest that the relations between the early settlers of the Logan district, the Native Police and the Yugambeh was at times volatile, while at others relatively peaceful and respectful. In particular one individual, Bilin Bilin, emerges as an indigenous diplomat at the interface of race relations in the Logan area.