TERN’s Samford Peri-Urban SuperSite is in the area fringing metropolitan Brisbane in the Samford Valley, around 20kms north west of Brisbane, Queensland. The site is part of the Queensland University of Technology’s Samford Ecological Research Facility (SERF), and comprises a mosaic of natural resources; native flora and fauna; significant landscapes; as well as supporting urban, agricultural and recreational land uses. The traditional custodians of the Samford Valley are of the Yugara nation. Clan relations may well have extended into and from the Jinibara and Kabi Kabi clans neighbouring this region as well.

Always Was, Always Will Be.

“The Samford Ecological Research Facility rests on a land rich in natural beauty. It is a land freshwater creeks and ponds, lush rainforest, thick eucalypt woodland and towering mountain peaks. It is a sanctuary to many rare and endangered native animals. From the tiniest marsupials to Australia’s largest owl.

It is also Aboriginal land that was never ceded.

This Country holds many sites of great significance to its Aboriginal custodians. Samford was an important location for kippering, or initiation ceremony, and is also home to a Bora ring and a burial site belonging to the land’s first inhabitants.

QUT acknowledges the Elders and Ancestors of this land, and thanks them for the care they have shown to this Country. QUT will show the same respect for Country, and will continue the long tradition of learning, teaching and research that has always taken place on this land”.
(Lorrelle Allen, June 4th 2024)