A DESCENDENT of Deebing Creek Mission's last superintendent has joined the fight to preserve the heritage-listed site off Grampian Road.

Deebing Heights resident Matt Gnech's great-great grandfather Thomas Ivins was the school headmaster and superintendent from 1896 until the mission closed and residents relocated to the Purga Mission.

The school at the Deebing Creek Mission was established on November 21, 1896. It was named the Deebing Creek Industrial School and the gazettal notice included the appointment of Thomas Ivins as superintendent and Charlotte Emily Ivins as matron.

Mr Gnech's great grandfather Gordon Ivins was the first non-indigenous baby born on the mission.

Yesterday he returned to the former mission site for the first time since his grandfather took him there as a child to tell him of his family's links to the site.

Historic plantings such as a large bunya nut pine tree and two large fig trees remain on the site and a mango tree and a date palm at the top of the hill also stand as a reminder of the site's colonial past. A cemetery and other grave sites are also on the land.

An underground brick well is all that is left of the once sprawling mission structures. The school building is thought to have been removed to the Purga Creek site in 1915 but it is not clear where other buildings from Deebing Creek Mission were relocated to. The Salvation Army took over the site after the mission closed.

The shocking part of what could be seen on the site was fresh tracks from heavy machinery that had recently graded a track through the lower end of the heritage-listed site.

As reported in the QT last week, developers Deebing Developments and Australand have plans for a 600-home development on the site.

Mr Gnech said the community had to take a stand to protect a part of its pioneering history.

"Once this is gone it's gone," he said. "To me not every parcel of land has the history where you can say my family generations ago had an impact and shaped society and shaped the community.

"For me it's not as significant as some of the indigenous families about the place but it is still pretty important. It's part of my family culture and heritage."

The Deebing Creek mission is one of the earliest mission sites in Queensland, founded by the Aboriginal Protection Society of Ipswich. Work started on establishing the mission in 1887.

The mission initially catered for Aboriginal people from the Ipswich area but by the turn of the century the residents came from many different tribes with some children being sent to the mission from as far away as Burketown on the Gulf of Carpentaria in far north-western Queensland.

Mr Gnech said the site was of national importance and should be preserved.

"This is a part of Ipswich's history," he said.

"Times change and not everything that was said and done in those times would be necessarily condoned now but that's what makes history history.

"That is why it is important that we preserve these sites.

"It's not about someone looking at a map and drawing a mark saying that's where we are going to grow and that's where we are going to build a whole heap of shoe-box houses.

"It is heritage listed.

"You can't paint a Queenslander the wrong colour if it is heritage listed so I thought something as significant as this would be protected.

"I'm not anti-development.

"I think development needs to take place and the opportunities that are here in the western corridor are endless but you can't tell me this site is the only site available to build houses.

"There's not another one of these. Why does this site have to be developed?"