Munruben

Location

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History

The name Munruben comes from a property called Mun Rubens owned by grazier William Norris. It is believed to derive from the Bundjalung language word for a local lagoon. Norris was leaseholder of 16,000 acres between Oxley Creek and the Logan River between 1840 and 1860. He was indentured to Charles Wray Finch in New South Wales on 8 January 1838. Norris’ name is remembered in Norris Creek on the Mount Lindesay Highway. He originally ran sheep on the property, as did most early leaseholders. The sheep were washed in the Dungappin washpool on the nearby Thompson property. In 1882, his daughter Emma Evans tragically drowned in the Logan River, along with three of her children. Norris’ daughter Naomi Marks was recognised as a very good horsewoman. Her daughter Caroline was the first teacher at Park Ridge provisional school.

The Mount Lindesay Highway linked New South Wales and Moreton Bay from the 1840s. It was known as the New England Highway until 1954. The large reserve along the local creek which borders Munruben and Park Ridge South is known as Jerry's Downfall. It is thought that Jerry was a Kanaka (Pacific Islander) labourer working at the Townsvale cotton plantation who capsized a bullock dray of cotton while crossing Chambers Creek. The locality is marked by a plaque erected by the Beaudesert Historical Society.

The suburb of Munruben in the Beaudesert Shire was gazetted in 1991.