DURING the past couple of months I have dropped into the bottom camp at Deebing Creek several times, and after work began and the bulldozers and excavators moved in something very interesting started happening at the site.

I know it has been a focus previously, but suddenly indigenous people started turning up who were investigating their roots. In fact 12 people in a fortnight turned up after the site started being destroyed.

My personal belief is a spiritual one, that the land is calling its children home. Many of the people who turned up have links to the land from pre-colonial times.

The 200 year old grandmother tree on the site was killed and wiped out. She was alive before the colonists even arrived. Now the children of the country are wanting to know more about who they are.

- LAURIE MCLEOD, Bundamba