First nations

Prior to European settlement, the Pine Rivers area was home to a number of Aboriginal clans belonging to the Turrbal, Kabi Kabi (or Gubbi Gubbi) and Waka (Wakka Wakka) language groups. These groups enjoyed a considerable amount of social interaction, especially at the time of the bunya feasts in the Blackall Range and the Bunya Mountains.

There were ceremonial bora rings at Samford, Samsonvale, Dayboro, Mount Pleasant, Laceys Creek, Petrie, Keperra and Kippa-Ring where neighbouring groups combined to carry out rituals.

During the mid 19th century, Dalaipi was a distinguished elder of the North Pine clan of the Turrbal people. It was Dalaipi, then nearly sixty years of age, who encouraged one of the district's best-known pioneers, Tom Petrie, to establish a cattle run in the North Pine area during the late 1850s.

Archaeological evidence, as well as the oral traditions of Queensland Aboriginal people, indicate that these first inhabitants occupied the land for many tens of thousands of years.