Billy Drumley

Family

William "Billy" Drumley was the brother of Jenny Graham and Emily Blow, the children of Warri and Daramlee (Yugambeh Nation, 2023). He and Jenny were initiated on Stradbroke Island, their mother's country, and carried the scars of the Yugambeh Nation (Yugambeh Nation, 2023).

Accounts of where he was born differ. His obituary says it was on a hill near Nerang where his mother's people were camped ("Billy Drumley is dead", 1951); a 1944 note says Stradbroke Island ("Local and general", 1944); and his great-grand-nephew Rory O'Connor writes that it was near Beenleigh, where his mother Warrie worked for the Haussmann and Appel families in the 1850s (O'Connor & Kutay, 2025).

A champion sportsman

The Beaudesert paper remembered him as an athlete of outstanding ability, who "played cricket with skill and won many trophies for boxing and running" ("Billy Drumley is dead", 1951). The family remembered it too: "Your Uncle Drumley was a champion runner" (O'Connor & Kutay, 2025).

The newspapers of the 1880s show a W. Drumley winning the 150-yard Sheffield Handicap at the Southport sports in May 1888, for a first prize of £30, where his win "created quite a surprise" ("Southport athletic sports", 1888). The same name appears in the high jump and hurdles at Nerang and Tallebudgera ("Country news: Nerang", 1888; "Sports at Tallebudgera", 1889). In 1896 a Drumley played for the Deebing Creek Aboriginal cricket team at its first match in Brisbane and threw boomerangs for the crowd ("The Deebing Creek cricketers", 1896), and in 1921 "Billy" Drumley was said to be longing for another Aboriginal cricket match at Ipswich ("Cricket and other notes", 1921).

The broad axe

Billy spent at least sixty years around Beaudesert, where "much of the scrub fell to axes wielded by his lusty arms" and he put up miles of fencing ("Billy Drumley is dead", 1951). "With the broad axe he was an artist, and old hands say there has never been a man to touch him"; timber he squared was as smooth as if it had been machine planed ("Billy Drumley is dead", 1951). He was also a champion slaughterman ("Local and general", 1944), and a W. Drumley won the wood-chopping at both the Nerang and Beaudesert shows in 1901 ("The Nerang Show", 1901).

Family tradition holds that he carved the wooden flagpole at Beaudesert's Anzac memorial after the First World War (Hoffmann, 2007; O'Connor & Kutay, 2025).

Walking Country

Billy often walked from his hut on the outskirts of Beaudesert, across the paddocks and over Tamborine, to Southport to visit his sister Jenny and her family (Hoffmann, 2007; O'Connor & Kutay, 2025). He carried bush tucker to his relatives (Lucashenko, 2009), chopped wood when he arrived, and always brought presents for the children, sometimes buneen, an echidna (O'Connor & Kutay, 2025). At 86 he still walked the 70 kilometres in a single day (Hoffmann, 2007).

Rory O'Connor also remembers that "Billy used to walk out into the lane where he lived and sing to send the rain clouds away" (Hoffmann, 2007).

An Elder of the community

Men who employed him said they knew no one more trustworthy, and he was generous to his own people and tried to set an example to the young ("Billy Drumley is dead", 1951). By 1944 five generations of the Drumley family were living in Beaudesert ("Local and general", 1944).

He died in Beaudesert Hospital on 11 September 1951, aged about 98 ("Billy Drumley is dead", 1951; "Family notices", 1952). The paper wrote that his was "a name that ... will never be forgotten in this district" ("Billy Drumley is dead", 1951).

The Drumley Walk

Elders spoke of "Uncle Drumley" with pride, and his walks are remembered as a tie between the inland and coastal Yugambeh families (O'Connor & Kutay, 2025). In 2005 Rory O'Connor and a cousin set out from Beaudesert's main street to retrace his route to the coast (Hoffmann, 2007). Within three years more than 300 people were starting the Drumley Walk, with landowners along the way opening their properties to the walkers (O'Connor & Kutay, 2025; Hoffmann, 2007).