It was cheers and beers for the Parkyn brothers, Nick and Will, when family and friends convened at the Parkyn Hut information centre in Tewantin late last month to celebrate the successful completion of a week-long expedition, on foot and in pack-rafts, retracing the journeys that three generations of the Parkyn family made back in Noosa’s settlement days.
Nick Parkyn who, with brother Will, represent the fifth generation of Parkyns in Australia, said: “Richard Bray Parkyn reached our shores on 11 September 1878, just one month short of his 23rd birthday. From Cornwall to Tewantin. Richard and his wife Maggie, John (Jack) Parkyn and his wife Daisy, Howard Parkyn and his wife Iris, and Cloudsley Parkyn, created a tradition that we celebrate today.”
Tewantin Heritage and Historical Society’s Bruce Cuttle welcomed the brothers home and congratulated them on their achievement. “Nick and Will, we, thank you for recognising and celebrating the contribution that generations of the Parkyn family have made to our district, and welcome you to Parkyn’s Hut, a building that has played a significant part in your family’s story.”
The next day, Nick wrote in his trip notes: “After 147 kilometres and eight rainy days of hiking and pack-rafting in the elements, it was heaven to wake up this morning in a dry warm bed. That’s not to say that my brother Will and I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the adversity, adventure, and significance of our pilgrimage to sites of ancestral importance for both our family and the shire. Despite the unprecedented rains, the past week will be etched in our brains forever. Through the trek we unearthed some missing pieces of the puzzles of history and had a few surprises along the way.”
As noted in a previous Noosa Today article, the trek route involved hiking and packrafting down the Mary River to Gympie and then back down the headwaters and lakes of the Noosa River, visiting the near-forgotten sites of their family history, starting at the site of great-great-grandfather Richard Bray Parkyn’s Gonamena Farm on the Mary near Kandanga, and finishing at great-grandfather Jack Parkyn’s wharf at Noosa Marina before wandering up the hill for Saturday afternoon celebration at Parkyn’s Hut. Well, the boys got to Gympie okay, and then on to Wolvi where they camped at Tagigan Creek, the site of Jack Parkyn’s cabin in which he set up home on the land with bride Daisy in 1912. And then Nick’s aforementioned “a few surprises” began in the form of torrential rains, which flooded the upper reaches of the Noosa River and closed sections of Cooloola Way.
With rafting out of the question and no access for a support vehicle, the boys had to rethink the route, overnighting at home in Tewantin before approaching from the south and hiking back up the Cooloola Great Walk to Brahminy camp.
From here on a brighter morning they hiked to Teewah Landing where, despite rising winds, they finally launched the rafts and made their way downriver to the finish line at the marina.
After a trek that tested their resilience from start to finish, Will and Nick identified as highlights discovering family history in a mining museum in Gympie, and the “real” John’s Landing, where their forebears would tie up the Miss Tewantin 100 years ago.
Nick told Noosa Today: “All in all, the trek exceeded our expectations. The rain was fitting for a shire that revolves around its waterways, and the surprises of finding Richard Bray’s mine living on as a museum, and stumbling across the true John’s Landing, was further connection to our ancestors who paved the way.”
