A group of Quandamooka people on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in Queensland have established a permanent protest camp and “Quandamooka Truth Embassy” in a last-ditch effort to stop the construction of an open-air structure housing the skeleton of a 15-metre eastern humpback whale.
The $3 million Yalingbila Bibula (Whale on the Hill) project at Mulumba (Point Lookout) is a project of the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC), supported by the state government, with Cox Architecture leading the design. First mooted in 2018, the structure would be both a research hub and exhibit supporting the skeleton of a whale that beached itself at the point in 2011. This would be the only intact humpback whale skeleton on display in the southern hemisphere.
The design aims at making the facility as unobtrusive as possible, with the structure to be built into the landscape and formed of “complementary materials.” Its highest point, 7.3 metres tall, will sit below the existing tree line and sections of the environment around the building will be restored to the natural topography and vegetation.
The plan is for the facility to be a place for ongoing research in partnership with the University of Queensland.
Visitors would be able talk with researchers and listen to whale songs beamed into the facility via a hydrophone, an underwater microphone system.
If construction does begin, the facility is expected to be completed in seven months.
Cox Architecture is also leading the design for the planned Quandamooka Art, Museum and Performance Institute, another major project being developed by the QYAC and state government.
Yalingbila Bibula (Whale on the Hill) by Cox Architecture.
While the QYAC says that community response to Cox Architecture’s designs had been “overwhelmingly positive,” there has been persistent resistance to the Yalingbila Bibula proposal from both Quandamooka and non-Indigenous locals since its launch.
“For three years we’ve protested and petitioned in masses to protect our sacred headland, to oppose the whale interpretive centre due to be built on this site commencing tomorrow,” the founders of the Quandamooka Truth Embassy said in a statement. “However, we’ve been constantly ignored and disregarded by the state government and Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation native title prescribed body.”
Opponents of the proposal say the hanging of the skeleton would be disrespectful and that the location of the exhibit is inappropriate.
“The heritage importance as well as the environmental importance of this place is really significant,” Traditional Owner Dale Ruska told the ABC.
“This is without a doubt culturally inappropriate, and we’ve had contact with other Aboriginal groups in the state. The whale for them is a very sacred being, and it’s actually their totem.”
At the time of publication, nearly 35,000 people have signed a petition opposing the development.
Yalingbila Bibula (Whale on the Hill) by Cox Architecture.
Despite the opposition, the state government says all appropriate environmental assessments and consultation processes have been followed, and the planning minister Steven Miles said he supports the project going ahead. “In general, I think [this is] a great project and will be great for the island,” he said.
But Dale Ruska said protesters were prepared to stand in front of bulldozers to stop construction.
“We’re willing to remain here with the aim to ensure that the… proposed extravagant, architecturally designed coffin to house the remains of a whale that died a very traumatic death does not occur,” he told the ABC.
