Jacaranda Chambers- Why Jacaranda?

Why Jacaranda?

Dr Kellie started Jacaranda Chambers in January 2003, initially opening chambers in Beenleigh to meet the needs of the community serviced by the Beenleigh and Southern Districts Courthouse, and subsequently expanding into Brisbane city.. With advances in technology reducing the need for “physical” chambers, both City and Beenleigh centres closed in 2008, but Jacaranda Chambers continues. The Beenleigh chambers were easily identifiable by a glorious jacaranda tree, in part why the chambers name

The jacaranda has become so much a part of our Australian identity that streetscapes often incorporate the flowering jacaranda, and many courthouses and many universities have jacarandas in close proximity. Artists have long been attracted to the tree’s form and colour, perhaps most famous among them is Brett Whiteley’s landscape “The Jacaranda Tree”, a painting that caused a minor storm in 1999 by setting a record price of $1.98 million.

Although so prevalent in Queensland, the tree comes from Brazil. The word Jacaranda derives from Portuguese and means “to have a hard core”. There are many myths and traditions surrounding the jacaranda. There is an Amazonian legend that positions the jacaranda as a tree of knowledge, perhaps one reason it finds favour in landscape plantings at universities. That myth goes something like this:

One day a beautiful bird, called Mitu, with silver plumage appeared flying from the south, bringing with him a beautiful indigenous priestess, they called the “daughter of the moon”. He landed in the top of the jacaranda tree and the priestess descended and lived for some time amongst the villagers. She shared with them her knowledge, wisdom and ethics. She showed them good from evil and ordained the women as priestesses. Then her time came to leave and the bird Mitu returned again to the jacaranda and took the priestess adorned in jacaranda flowers away from the villagers to be with her promised one, the Son of the Sun who had fulfilled a similar mission in another part of the jungle..

Another story about the tree builds on this Amazonian myth. The jacaranda creates magnificent shade throughout summer, and, the story suggests that its shade became a venue for maintaining order within the community. It is said that in Africa the elder women of the tribe would gather under the tree and dispense justice to those malcontents and miscreants in the community.

…So when choosing a name for the chambers, it was hard to resist the motif of a tree of knowledge, with an association to truth and justice, with a hard and strong core, and with gorgeous colours. Add in the final myth, that if just one bell of the jacaranda flower should fall on one’s head when walking below then good fortune will follow and it became simply irresistible.

Dr Kellie is committed to building a positive relationship with clients and offering to you a comprehensive advice and advocacy service such that you might find the Jacaranda Chambers difference, simply irresistible.

It may be that the bird in this legend actually existed: there is a “mitu mitu”, although it is basically black, the proper name Alagoas Curassow. The last (unconfirmed) sighting of this species was in the late 1980s and it is now thought to be extinct in the wild . ( BirdLife International (2006) Species factsheet: Mitu mitu. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/5/2006)

[ It may be that the bird in this legend actually existed: there is a “mitu mitu”, although it is basically black, the proper nameAlagoas Curassow. The last (unconfirmed) sighting of this species was in the late 1980s and it is now thought tobe extinct in the wild. (BirdLife International (2006) Species factsheet: Mitu mitu. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/5/2006) ]