Trumpeters Corner – A Soldier Settler Story

 Trumpeters Corner is a little-known and quite out of the way Point of Interest, located just 18 km west of the small town of Jandowae.  The memorial here is dedicated to the 21 returned soldiers who took up a government offer to work the land situated between Jandowae and Warra, in the Western Downs region of Queensland, Australia. They each received their own parcel of land to work via draws in the land ballots.  Unfortunately, whilst well intentioned, the scheme mostly failed as the blocks were too small to be profitable in the post-war economy of agriculture.  The soldiers gradually drifted away.

The story surrounding this memorial is so very interesting and heart-warming.  World War II soldier-settler story. Local barman, Mick Brazier greatly admired this group of soldiers and in 1950 put up a sign at the corner of two of the blocks and named the site ‘Trumpeters Corner’. This original sign is still there today and features the initials of the 21 soldier settlers as well as an old trumpet. The ‘Trumpeters’ were affectionately given this collective name from Mick.  The story goes that this group would gather in the pub to share their stories, sometimes getting quite noisy, and as the saying goes, they like to ‘blow their own trumpets’.  Barman Mick kept an old trumpet under his bar and when these fellas got too noisy, he took it out and blew it to quieten this rowdy lot.  

In 1961 a brass plaque which included the full names of the Trumpeters was donated by one of the widows, and the site was gazetted as an official place name. Over time there have been a few more interesting additions to this site including a descendant of the Gallipoli Lone Pine tree and a bench seat.

Trumpeters Corner serves as a memorial to returned servicemen and servicewomen but is also a celebration of a ‘larrikinism’ that is uniquely Australian.  You can see it for yourself in our video – https://youtu.be/v6_rT6EPRz0