HISTORY ITEMS
Under the leadership of Romeo Lahey and Arthur Groom, the first camps at Binna Burra occurred in 1933 with members of the National Parks Association of Queensland (NPAQ). The original name of the company now known as Binna Burra Lodge Ltd was Queensland Holiday Resorts, incorporated in 1934. Three years before the first camp at Binna Burra, Lahey and Groom also played leadership roles to establish the NPAQ in 1930.
This page features historical items recorded from Binna Burra’s past and present.
1930s to 2019
PDF: Original Prospectus 1934 – QLD Holiday Resorts (Binna Burra Lodge Ltd)
PDF: 2004 – Future Vision for Binna Burra
PDF: Binna Burra Stories – Winifred (Win) Bristow (1906 – 2005)
PDF: The Lamington National Park – A contrasts approach to rainforest tourism research
PDF: Lamington National Park and Binna Burra Mountain Lodge, Queensland: Partners in conserving rainforest. (2005) Brett Stubbs and Raymond Sprecht
PDF: History of the Binna Burra Bushwalkers Club
PDF: Pre bushfire historical item – the way things were once at Binna Burra!
PDF: Romeo Lahey Memorial Lecture 1971 by Alex Chisholm, NPAQ.
PDF: History of the Formation of Lamington National Park by Margaret Keates in a 2017 Bulletin from the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland
PDF: The tenth annual Romeo W. Lahey Memorial lecture (1990) at the National Parks Association of Queensland. Delivered by Tony Groom.
BOOK: Binna-Burra Begins: a chronicle to 1940 of newspaper clippings, articles, photographs and items about the development and growth of Binna Burra Lodge. Author: Don Marshall 2020
PDF: Binna Burra keeps the comprehensive ‘Chronology of Bushwalking’ listing the formation of bushwalking organisations in Australia from 1888
PDF: An archived copy of the Binna Burra Views newsletter from Spring 2005
PDF: Information about each cabin from Binna Burra Lodge. All cabins but one were lost in the September 2019 bushfires.
PDF: History about the road into Binna Burra side of Lamington National Park
READ: Binna Burra is a place special to many generations of families. This is one of them. The Bourne Family (information supplied by Richard Bourne).
WATCH: Barry Davies explaining history of Binna Burra Lodge to a Chinese Tour Group in and around the lodge, before the 2019 bushfires.
Binna Burra Stories: Dr David Gifford Croll – Click this link to download.
PDF: ‘A Pioneer Conservationist: Romeo Watkins Lahey, MBE, ME (1887-1968). Talk given to LNHA at the Environmental Study Centre, Binna Burra on 13 March 1999 by Shirley Lahey
PDF: Binna Burra Newsletter – Autumn 2005
PDF: Conservation Management Plan May 2010
The 2019 Bushfires
PDF: Bushfire at Binna Burra – Griffith University Case Study (December 2019)
PPT: Cause of the bushfires at Binna Burra Lodge
VIDEO: ABC News video clip from the bushfire incident control area at Canungra on Friday 13 September 2019.
AUDIO: ABC Radio interview attached. Recorded early morning, 24 hours after the bushfires went through Binna Burra Lodge.
PDF: Binna Burra Lodge references in Queensland Parliament
Maps of the 2019/2020 Australian Bushfires.
PDF: Personal recollections of the 2019 bushfires at Binna Burra By Steve Noakes
2019 and Onward
Read: The National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Binna Burra
Video: The National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Binna Burra
PDF: Since 1933. The ‘spirit of Binna Burra’. The culture of resilience continues after the 2019 bushfires.
PDF: Reopening of the road into Binna Burra (31 August 2020)
PDF: One year anniversary address from the Chairperson (8 September 2020)
PDF: Binna Burra and RGSQ reigniting historic relationship – see the attached RGSQ Bulletin (Sept 2021).
The 19th Romeo Lahey Memorial Lecture, 2021. Presented by Steve Noakes.
The 2021 Romeo Lahey Memorial Lecture was the 19th such presentation of a tradition that commenced over a half century ago – in 1969 – to honour the memory of Romeo Watkins Lahey who served as founding President of the National Parks Association of Queensland (NPAQ) for three decades, from 1930 to 1961. For almost six decades up to the 1970s he was instrumental in convincing successive Queensland Governments to declare many of the state’s national parks. In the early 1930s, along with Arthur Groom who was the inaugural Secretary of NPAQ, Romeo was also co-founder of Binna Burra Lodge, located within the world heritage listed Lamington National Park.
The 2021 Lecture was delivered by Steve Noakes, a Councillor of the NPAQ and Chairperson of Binna Burra Lodge. Steve’s address gives a summary of the historical foundations laid by Romeo Lahey and Arthur Groom, linking the NPAQ and Binna Burra
You can download the text of the lecture here
Or you can listen to the lecture here
PDF: History of Binna Burra Lodge Managers and Senior Positions
PALs. #GriffithUni
As the Lead University Partner at Binna Burra, Griffith University assisted in the rebuild, leading the design and construction of the Phoenix Pavilion.
PDF: Background paper – Feb 2023. Politics. People. Partners. Process. Designing and building a new lodge and accommodation on the Binna Burra Cultural Landscape.
PDF: Five year anniversary of the 2019 bushfires
PDF: Cyclone Alfred response & recovery 2025