Tchernaya Creek

A white Russian woman and a native black man together in Central Queensland, Australia in the early 1900’s, was guaranteed to set tongues wagging. With a shortage of white women in the new raw colony, the fast-maturing, eye-catching Russian immigrant - Tchernaya Kreyanoff - was pledged as a teen to a local landholder: a man used to getting what he wanted, and rich enough to have others ensure those wishes were granted. Tchernaya however, was no wilting wallflower; she was fortified by her chosen man, his people and their sacred lands. On Queensland’s east coast Bruce Highway - that infamous 2000-kilometer stretch of narrow blacktop running the coast from Brisbane to Cairns – the road crosses a small Creek-bed that carries her exquisite name. Now, find out why…