Time capsule put down at Gormans Gap
The Gorman’s Gap Committee celebrated the depositing of the second
time capsule at the Gorman’s Gap Memorial on Sunday 18 November.
The first time capsule was put down by the Governor of Queensland
Sir James Ramsey on 17 October 1982, with a third capsule to be laid
in 2032 with all to be opened in 2082.
Lieutenant Owen Gorman, last Commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal
Settlement walked intp history on 17 October 1840. On that day, with
his converted Irish Jaunting Cart, drawn by a single bullock and
guided by former escaped convict John Baker, he reached the top of
the range near Preston near Toowoomba. The seven kilometre track he
and his party marked became Gorman’s Gap Road, the first road to the
Darling Downs from Moreton Bay which in 1980 became the first road
in Australia to be declared part of Australia’s National Estate.
That is a measure of its significance. The 1840’s was a decade of
unparalleled expansion of settlement through the Darling Downs and
the Lockyer Valley. In November 1840 the first bullock wagon teams
negotiated Gorman’s Gap Road to take much needed supplies to the new
settlers at Hodgsonvale.
In 1979 local identity Erich Volker inspired Federal Member for
Darling Downs Tom McVeigh with a team of enthusiastic local
committee the ask of marking the route and ensuring recognition of
its National importance.
Photo: CURRENT COMMITTEE members (L-R) Gail Lipke, Jim Zekants, Cr
Dave Neuendorf, Len Kennedy, Pam Hahn, Danielle Lambie, Jock Lambie,
Gordon Hedges and Mayor Steve Jones.
