About Aunty Sandra
Aunty Sandra King OAM is a Magandjin (Brisbane) born Elder of Yagara, Quandamooka, Bundjalung and South Sea Islander ancestry. Her first home was Barrambin, the place known today as Victoria Park. As a child in the 1950s she lived in the Victoria Park settlement, where she sat with Elders and learned her people’s ways. “Barrambin was my first home,” she says. The settlement was demolished in 1960, but the place never left her, and she returns to it still.
“Barrambin was my first home. This special part of Brisbane has been a major camp and a place for ceremony and corroboree for thousands of years. Our stories, our traditions are in the ground here, in the vegetation, the trees, the lakes, the hills. It is irreplaceable.”
Aunty Sandra King OAM · Section 10 statement, 2025
Recently, Aunty Sandra filed a Federal Heritage Protection claim, under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984, to safeguard Barrambin / Victoria Park from the Brisbane 2032 stadium development, that will destroy those sacred grounds. It is the second such claim filed for the site.
Aunty Sandra’s is a story of achievement. In the 1970s she became one of Australia’s first Aboriginal fashion models, working for Myer, David Jones and Sportsgirl at a time when a First Nations woman modelling full-time was, in her words, unheard of. She built her own agency, Sandra King Management, and from 1988 put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander models, of every age, shape and size, on the runway.
In 2009 she created the Black, Bold & Beautiful Indigenous Women’s Event, a celebrated annual showcase of First Nations enterprise, fashion and women’s business, which has now reached thousands of people.
Aunty Sandra serves as Reconciliation Action Plan Coordinator for the Anglican Church Southern Queensland, helping clergy, staff and parishioners understand First Nations histories, culture and reconciliation. Among the speakers at her 2026 Black, Bold & Beautiful was Dr Noritta Morseu-Diop, Uncle Bill’s June Yarning Circle guest. In 2020 she received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the Indigenous community.
Aunty Sandra joins Uncle Bill Lemson at St John’s Cathedral on Sunday 12 July 2026 to share her story, from a child on Barrambin to an Elder standing for it. This is the heart of the Yarning Circle: to hear, in person, the journey of a First Nations life that has shaped this place. Come and Connect.
Sources: Anglican Focus (Anglican Church Southern Queensland), portrait and biographical material used with Aunty Sandra’s permission; Sandra King Management; Save Victoria Park (Section 10 statement, 2025); SBS NITV; National Indigenous Times (2024–2026). Compiled with care, with Uncle Bill’s direct knowledge of his guest.
12 July Yarning Circle with Aunty Sandra
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Uncle Bill Lemson