Brisbane+Town

SOSE UNIT YEAR 5 TERRA NULLIUS Resource Aboriginal culture before 1824 Brisbane was home to the Jagera and Turrbal Aboriginal clans. Before European settlement, the land, the river and its tributaries were the source and support of life in all its dimensions. The river's abundant supply of food included fish, shellfish, crabs and shrimps. The good fishing places became campsites and the focus of group activities. Moreton Bay Penal Settlement from 1824 until 1842 The selection of Brisbane as a gaol site was actually an afterthought. Redcliffe, north of the city, was the original preference when Surveyor General John Oxley, aboard the cutter 'Mermaid', first surveyed the region late in 1823. The boat was anchored off Bribie Island when the crew saw a group of Aborigines and "one who appeared larger than the rest" on the shore. This was an ex-convict called Thomas Pamphlett, one of four men who had left Sydney earlier that year on an ill-fated journey to sail south to buy cedar. Pamphlett and a fellow survivor of the journey, Finnegan, had been living with the Aborigines for several months when Oxley spotted Pamphlett on a beach in Moreton Bay. Pamphlett and Finnegan told Oxley of a large river they had seen in the area. Intrigued, Oxley set off in a whaleboat with a small crew and Finnegan as their guide. Oxley found the river the next day and named it in honour of the then Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane. It was the red cliffs north of the river that impressed him as the most suitable site for the new penal settlement. In 1825, less than a year after the convicts arrived, the Redcliffe site was abandoned mainly because Brisbane had a more reliable water supply. It was also surrounded by a bend in the river, which meant that escape was more difficult. With a government decree forbidding unauthorised people coming within fifty miles, the walled gaol operated for the next seventeen years, taking only the toughest prisoners from Sydney. However, mounting pressure on decision makers in England to stop sending convicts to Australia finally led to Moreton Bay district being opened to free settlers in 1842.  Free settlement 1842-1900 Brisbane was free to grow as a city. Grand homes like Palma Rosa at Hamilton and Brisbane's oldest surviving residence, Newstead House, sprang up among the slab huts and shanties. The population grew from 829 in 1846 to almost 6,000 by 1859 when Brisbane became capital of the self-governing colony of Queensland. By 1888, most evidence of convict occupation in the central business district was gone. In its place stood imposing buildings like Old Government House and Customs House. The grandeur of these buildings highlighted the strength of Brisbane's growing economy. = A new century 1901-2000  = By the time of Federation in 1901, Queensland was the fastest growing state in the new nation and Brisbane was its economic hub. Despite the drought, floods and depression of the 1890s, trade and industry were booming. The Brisbane River was a hive of maritime activity. Brisbane’s [|Heritage Trails] are a great way to discover the rich heritage of some of Brisbane’s oldest areas. There are thirteen self-guided trails around Brisbane, including two ‘armchair’ trails and two Aboriginal Trails. = The Brisbane River  = The Brisbane River is the longest river in [|southeast] [|Queensland], [|Australia] , and flows through the city of [|Brisbane] , before emptying into [|Moreton Bay]. The river is dammed by the [|Wivenhoe Dam], forming Lake Wivenhoe, the main water supply for Brisbane. The river was named after the [|Governor of New South Wales] [|Thomas Brisbane] by the explorer [|John Oxley] in 1823. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Before European settlement, the Brisbane River was a vital food source for the Aboriginal people of the [|Turrbal] Nation. The Turrbal people were a fishing people. The river was also important to the Turrbal people for spiritual and recreational activities. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Four European [|navigators], namely [|Captain Cook], [|Matthew Flinders], [|John Bingle] and [|William Edwardson], all visited Moreton Bay but failed to discover the river. The exploration by Flinders took place during his expedition from [|Port Jackson] north to [|Hervey Bay] in 1799. He spent a total of 15 days in the area, touching down at Woody Point several other spots, but failed to discover the mouth of the river although there were suspicions of its existence. This is consistent with accounts of many other rivers along the east coast of [|Australia], which could not be found by seaward exploration but were discovered by inland travellers.[|[1]] <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">On 21 March 1823, four ticket-of-leave convicts sailed south from Sydney bound for Illawarra on a timber getting mission. Their names were [|Thomas Pamphlett], [|John Finnegan], [|Richard Parsons] and [|John Thompson]. Caught in a storm which took them out to sea, they were blown north instead and went 21 days without water, during which time Thompson died. They landed on [|Moreton Island] on 16 April and made it to the mainland on the south of the Brisbane River. They immediately began trekking north in order to return to Sydney, still believing themselves to be somewhere south of Jervis Bay.[|[2]] Subsequently they became the first known Europeans to discover the river, stumbling across it somewhere near the entrance. They walked upstream along its banks for nearly a month before making their first crossing at 'Canoe Reach', the junction of Oxley Creek. It was here they 'procured' a small canoe. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">[|John Oxley] was Surveyor General of [|New South Wales] when, in the same year and under orders from Governor Brisbane, he sailed into [|Moreton Bay] looking for a suitable new site for a convict settlement to be established. An entry in Oxley's diary on 19 November 1823 describes his surprise meeting with one of the shipwrecked men: <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">"We rounded the Point Skirmish about 5 o'clock and observed a number of natives running along the beach towards the vessel, the foremost much lighter in colour than the rest. We were to the last degree astonished when he came abreast the vessel to hear him hail us in good English." <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">By that time Pamplett and Finnegan were living with natives near [|Bribie Island]. Parsons, who had continued to travel north in search of Sydney, was never heard of again. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">On the [|2 December] [|1823], Oxley and Stirling, with Finnegan as a somewhat reluctant guide, entered the river and sailed began to said upstream until they came as far as present-day [|Goodna].[|[3]][|[4]] Oxley noted the abundant [|fish] and tall [|pine trees]. Early European explorers marvelled at the sheer natural beauty they witnessed while travelling up the lower reaches. Reports by early European explorers such as Allan Cunningham and Oxley indicate rainforest once fringed the Brisbane River and its major tributaries, especially on the broader floodplains such as St. Lucia and Seventeen Mile Rock. The coastal lowlands were extensively vegetated with [|Melaleuca] woodlands in low lying, poorly drained coastal areas. When first described by Europeans, the lower reaches of the Brisbane River were fringed by a mosaic of open forest, closed forest and rainforest.[|[5]] <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the same year of 1823, the river was named after [|Sir Thomas Brisbane], the then [|Governor of New South Wales]. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="text-decoration: none; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; text-underline: none; mso-no-proof: yes;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="text-decoration: none; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; text-underline: none; mso-no-proof: yes;">  <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">[|Portside Wharf], the [|HM Bark Endeavour] and Pacific Sun cruise ship <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Upon the establishment of a local settlement in 1824, other explorers such as [|Allan Cunningham], [|Patrick Logan] and [|Major Edmund Lockyer] made expeditions and surveys further upstream, and, in 1825, the Moreton Bay penal colony at [|Redcliffe] relocated to [|North Quay].[|[6]] <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The first small private wharves were built on the river in about 1848.[|[7]] and the once popular, shark-proof river baths were first built in 1857 at Kangaroo Point.[|[8]] <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">From 1862 the Brisbane River has been dredged for navigation purposes.[|[9]] Throughout much of the 20th century large quantities of [|sand] and [|gravel] were extracted from the estuary of the river. Since the rate of materials being deposited is not as high as that which was removed, the river has acted as a subaqueous [|mine]. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In 1866 there was a [|breakwater] built at the junction of the Bremer and Brisbane rivers that was designed to stop shingle from blocking the access to the Bremer's boat channel. The first [|pile light] using [|kerosene] was built in 1882.[|[10]] The [|steel] framed light also served as an early port [|signal station] __<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A SNAPSHOT OF TURRBAL HISTORY IN BRISBANE __<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Prior to European settlement in Brisbane in 1825, the Turrbal people, according to Tom Petrie (of the founding family of modem-day Brisbane), occupied the area of land extending far inland to the Gold Creek or Moggill, as far north as North Pine, and south to the Logan River ... Of all the blackfellows who were boys when he was a boy there is only one survivor; most of them died off prematurely through drink introduced by the white men (Constance Petrie, //Tom Petrie's Reminiscences of early Queensland// 1904, pp. 4-5). It is this story of near-extinction of the Turrbal people, the original inhabitants of the Brisbane area, that has enticed some neighbouring tribal groups (such as the so-called "Jagera", Quandamooka, Gubbi Gubbi, Wakka Wakka and others) at the beginning of the 1900s to attempt to falsely claim Brisbane as their ancestral homelands. As the forthcoming book titled //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Surviving Turrbal //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">written by Turrbal Songwoman Maroochy Barambah and Principal Adviser Ade Kukoyi reveals, the Turrbal people "are not all dead and gone". They are alive and well, and their compelling story goes back to the heroic and inspiring survival of Maroochy Barambah's great, great, great grandmother named Kulkarawa. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> __<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">EARLIEST ACCOUNTS OF MODERN-DAY BRISBANE __<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pioneering explorer, John Oxley, in 1824, noted a large assemblage of Turrbal people along the present-day site of the Wesley hospital, the Regatta hotel and Coronation Drive on account of water being present there. In 1823, the three castaways (Pamphlett, Parsons and Finnegan) had a rather tense encounter with some of the Turrbal people in the vicinity of the present-day central business district. The shipwrecked timber-getters had earlier set out from Sydney in a sailing boat bound for the Illawarra district to cut cedar but were been blown off course. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The earliest historical records suggest that Brisbane was well inhabited by the Turrbal people. In fact, this dense inhabitation was one of the many reasons, which attracted the early settlers to 'Meeaan-jin' (Turrbal name for Brisbane) following their initial abortive settlement at Humpybong (Redcliffe) in 1824. The various pathways (Aboriginal tracks) that had existed since the Dreamtime were later to form the basis of road infrastructures around Brisbane today. Examples of these include Waterworks Road and the Old Northern Road. Waterworks Road for example was built on a Turrbal pathway that led Mount Coot-tha - a place of the honey-bee Dreaming. The Old Northern Road was the pathway that led to triennial Bunya feast in Wakka Wakka country. Toowong had a ceremony ring upon which a pub (The Regatta Hotel) is believed to be standing today. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> __<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">FUTURE PROSPECTS __<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: maroon; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">As we begin a new millennium, the task ahead of the surviving Turrbal people is one of cultural revitalisation, says Turrbal Law-woman & Songwoman Maroochy Barambah. Part of that process is the publication of a Turrbal history book //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Surviving Turrbal //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> which the Turrbal people hopes will form an integral part of history and social science studies in schools all over their ancestral homelands. Maroochy says that it is very important that Queenslanders know and understand their true history. This is not an era for blaming or finger pointing <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Duke of York Clan occupied the region to the south of the South Pine River. To the north was the North Pine Clan. Tom Petrie indicated that the Turrbal language was spoken as far north as North Pine, west to Moggil and Gold Creek and south to the Logan. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Petrie was a great source of information on Aboriginal people and he marked out many of the roads in the district along existing Aboriginal tracks. He first travelled the Old Northern Road in 1845 when he accompanied Aborigines to the Bonyi (Bunya) festival in the Blackall Ranges. Tom spoke about the leader of a small fishing tribe who lived near the mouth of the South Pine River. His clan called him Mindi-Mindi, and the whites called him Kabon-Tom. He initially scared Tom Petrie when Tom teased him as a child, but later they became friends. Kabon-Tom lived to be an old man in his nineties. Others weren’t so lucky. The diseases bought by the whites soon had a major detrimental effect on the Aboriginal population. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">After Tom Petrie was married and was looking for a place to start a cattle grazing property, he went into the area we now know as Petrie. He was accompanied by Dal-ngang the son of an Aboriginal elder, Dalapai he had known since childhood. One of the first things he noticed about the local North Pine Aborigines was the smallpox scars on their bodies and the fact that there were few old people. Disease had taken its toll. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Tom chose a site for his homestead, which he name ‘Murrumba’ meaning good. An area on the river nearby was called ‘Mandin’, meaning fishing nets, as this was a popular local fishing place. Closer to the Moreton Bay settlement the main camping ground for the Duke of York Clan was the gully through Victoria Park and the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds. This campsite was known as Barrambin. Another popular campsite was Buyuba at Newmarket near Bancroft Park on Enoggera Creek. Enoggera is derived from the word Yowoggera which means corroboree. A burial ground also existed there. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #2582eb; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Urban development <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The area was known as Soldier's Flat when it was first surveyed in 1859. During the 1890s it was known as Little Cabbage Tree Creek. By 1897 the district was named Aspley after the Morris family's orchard and vineyard, which had been established since the 1870s. Land parcels were eagerly bought up during the 1850s and 1860s. By the 1890s smaller subdivisions were being sold. A school, initially called Little Cabbage Creek School, had opened in 1890. The Royal Exchange Hotel operated from 1875 and served as the first general store. It was situated on Gympie Road opposite the Albany Creek Road intersection. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The Aboriginal settlement of the Moreton Bay area predates the Bay itself. 15,000+ years ago Aboriginal tribes roamed the area’s hills and plains. Then, after the last ice age 12000 to 8000 years ago with the melting of the Polar ice the sea level rose to form what is now known as Moreton Bay. The former hill tops became the inner islands while northbound coastal currents deposited sand to form the outer protective islands of Moreton and Stradbroke. The Aborigines continued to populate these, unmolested through unrecorded eons until the sporadic visitations of foreign seamen One can only imagine their surprise at seeing the masses of white canvas sails on these huge, square rigged ships. And when Cook sailed past in 1770 they little knew that he was giving a name to their still unwritten land: Morton Bay XE "Morton Bay" (after James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton, and misspelled by later cartographers as Moreton Bay). Matthew Flinders in 1799 made the first recorded contact with the Bay’s indigenous people when he landed at Bribie Island and was met by a group of aborigines. A short attempt at trading only heightened the tension and mistrust between the two groups and ended with a spear being thrown and a musket fired in return. The spot of this encounter was named Skirmish Point by Flinders, and symbolises much of the early encounters between the indigenous people and the European newcomers. For come they did when John Oxley arrived in 1824 with a group of convicts to set up a settlement at Redcliffe Point. The following year it was moved to a site on the Brisbane River and continued as a convict settlement until 1839. From 1842, when Moreton Bay was thrown open to free settlement, immigrants arrived in their droves. Life for the indigenous people would never be the same. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">However, it was the taking of the aborigines’ land that must surely have been their greatest downfall. Mr Tripcony: ‘They got used to coming for rations, but of course they could always live on what they caught or found for themselves. When they lived by hunting, though, they had to be always moving on.’ Removing their hunting grounds, then, made the Aborigines even more dependent on the Europeans for their livelihood. And with each step towards ‘civilisation’ they became one more step removed from their Nature Mother, one more step away from their culture, and their reason for existence. // IMMIGRATION  // Having served as one of Australia’s receptacles for Britain’s overcrowded prisons, Moreton Bay next became a destination for many of Europe’s dispossessed. Fleeing from wars, religious persecution, and economic hardship, tens of thousands of immigrants, notably from Britain and Germany, set off to try to make a better life in a new country, Australia. But as well as their hopes they also brought their diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and typhoid, that could ravage whole communities. The aborigines, in particular, were vulnerable and their lack of immunity contributed significantly to their decline. So quarantine stations were set up to house passengers and crews of infected ships. Dunwich became Moreton Bay’s quarantine station in 1850 with the ill-fated “Emigrant ” its first caller. Later, St Helena was developed as a quarantine station but on completion of the buildings in 1866, the Government had a change of heart and converted it into a prison. A new site for the quarantine station was later found at Peel Island, with nearby Bird Island its tiny outpost. // ASYLUMS  // <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Moreton Bay had its share of Government institutions. First established was the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich in 1864 to house those who were unable to look after themselves. Such people included the aged, the infirm, alcoholics, and those suffering from epilepsy and consumption (Tuberculosis). This remained until 1946 when it was transferred to Eventide at Sandgate. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Next was the prison at St Helena that ran as such from 1867 until 1933. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The Lazaret at Peel Island was another asylum – this time for Queensland’s Leprosy patients. Established in 1907, it was to remain in operation until 1959 but even to this day, the stigma of leprosy hangs over the island.

// RECREATION //
With indoor entertainment limited in the frontier society of the late 1800s, Moreton Bay became a major source of recreation. With no electricity yet invented to operate fans or the air conditioning we are becoming ever more dependent on today, Brisbane must have been a real hot house during the humid summer months. No wonder that the Bay’s cooling breezes provided a great incentive for Brisbanites to flock to the newly established resorts of Sandgate and Cleveland. Further afield, Bribie Island, with its tranquil beauty, unspoiled beaches, and wonderful fishing became another favourite spot. // SETTLEMENT  // Closer to Brisbane, the Bayside suburbs of Wynnum, Manly, and Lota (south of the Brisbane River) and Cribb Island, Nudgee Beach, and Redcliffe (to the north of the river) were to become early dormitory suburbs. People could live there cheaply; ‘town’ was just a bus or train trip away; the climate was more temperate than uptown Brisbane; and they could spend their leisure times on the Bay at their doorstep. The Southern Bay islands, too, were settled, and in the Great Depression many sought refuge there from the economic hardships of city life. Much of the land was cleared for farming, but island life did have its drawbacks - obtaining basic medical help becomes so much more difficult on an island. Today, though, the secret is out and property with a water view, be it Bayside or Riverside is greatly valued. //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">TRANSPORT //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> From its first European occupation, the Bay has been host to a constant stream of vessels from interstate and overseas. The shallow and treacherous waters of the Bay have claimed many victims and pilots with local knowledge are required to board visiting vessels outside the Bay and guide them through the correct channels to the Port of Brisbane. The waterways of Moreton Bay quickly became the highways for the development of the region. It would not be until after WWII that road transport would take over from the cargo boats. Vessels would ply from Brisbane northwards to Bribie Island and Caloundra and south to Southport and Nerang. Best known of the early cargo carrying families were the Tripcony’s and later the Maloney Brothers (Northern Bay) and the Gibson’s, and Kleinschmidt ’s (Southern Bay). But surely it was the dear old // ‘ //Maid of Sker', that grand dame of the Southern Bay, which best epitomises that era, and which is remembered with the greatest affection – even if is only the sight of her stranded on a sandbank waiting helplessly for the tide to lift her off. There was a spirit of camaraderie amongst the boatmen that helped define a special quality of ‘Moreton Bay people’. It derived from an intimate knowledge of its ever changing waterways, and a realisation of Man’s dependence on the whims of Nature, and of the unwritten requirement to help others out in times of need. The Bay can be a dangerous place to the unwary. //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">INDUSTRY //<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The Bay had always been a bountiful source of food and shelter for the Aborigines. This supply proved sustainable to their needs because they were relatively few in number, their hunting methods relatively unsophisticated, and they were not greedy in their harvests in that they only took enough for their immediate requirements (thank goodness they didn’t have refrigerators!). <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">When Europeans arrived in Moreton Bay, they were quick to exploit the Bay’s great resources both as a source of income and as a source of recreational pleasure. The cedar trees were felled, the rich land of the southern bay islands farmed, while the waters of the Bay were harvested for their oysters, fish, crabs, dugong oil, and anything else for which there was a market. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">From 1952 until 1962, a whaling station operated at Tangalooma on Moreton Island. Far from being a controversial undertaking then as it would be today, the establishment of the whaling station was accepted as a step forward to bring Moreton Bay into line with a generally accepted practice worldwide. It was the advent of vegetable margarine, and plastics that made whaling unprofitable. This, coupled with the declining whale numbers passing up for the coast for breeding, forced the closure of Tangalooma after just ten years of operation. Even so when Les Nash, a lookout on the whale chasers but now an avid whale watcher at Point Lookout, gave a newspaper interview in the early 1990s – 30 years after Tangalooma closed down, he received two highly critical phone calls from conservationists for his part in the whale slaughter. This displays the latters’ ignorance of history and of their failure to differentiate between what was acceptable then and what is acceptable today. They could just as easily abused their grandparents for feeding whale meal to their stock or using whale oil for cooking or medicinal purposes, or for grandma wearing a whalebone corset! Each era has what I like to call a ‘community consciousness’. It’s something that is difficult to define in history books but is, nonetheless, real. What is acceptable to one generation may be totally abhorrent to the next. We have seen it in other areas, too: Australia’s ties to England have been replaced by those to the United States; our attitude to indigenous people’s rights in the community has become more accepting; the community is more understanding of people with contagious diseases (Hansen’s Disease patients are now treated in Hospitals instead of being isolated on Peel Island as they once were); we have realised that our resources are no longer unlimited; and so on. Changes in our ‘community consciousness’ aren’t history //per se//, but they are influenced //by// history, and this is why a knowledge of our history is so important. // PERSONALITIES  // Moreton Bay has always had its share of ‘personalities’ among those who have chosen to spend their lives in its domain. Its waters demand respect based on seamanship of the highest order, commonsense, courage in adversity, an intimate knowledge of its channels and shallows, compassion for others, and a love of freedom that only an outdoor life can offer; and if the odd eccentricity should surface, then all the better!

// BEYOND THE BAY //
When Matthew Flinders entered Moreton Bay in 1799, he introduced this isolated sanctuary to civilisation. Never again would it be a world divorced from the affairs of the world ‘outside’. We’ve already seen how persecution and economic hardship in Europe brought waves of immigrants to our shores. A more tangible remnant is to be found at Fort Lytton, built in the late 1800s to defend the Bay against a feared Russian invasion, that never came. A more dramatic impact on the Bay was the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s, occasioned by America’s Stock Market crash and its resultant huge unemployment flow on in the Western World. The islands of Southern Moreton Bay in particular became a refuge for the jobless of Brisbane. Here people could erect shelters and live off the Bay’s still abundant resources, in a way not unlike their Aboriginal counterparts of a century earlier. World War II brought another threat of invasion to our shores, this time from the Japanese. Moreton Bay became a focal point for the build-up of American servicemen and equipment to assist in the eventual Allied victory. The remnants of Forts at Bribie and Moreton Islands are a few of the tangible reminders of these days. The latter half of the twentieth century saw a period of stability and growth return to Moreton Bay but the new millennium has seen our complacency shaken once again by world events. Immigrants this time from Asia, are once again seeking refuge, legal or otherwise, in our shores and Pinkemba has even been suggested as a possible site for a holding camp. The economy too is jittery, but the Bay’s resources are no longer enough to sustain the jobless. War, once again, threatens, but the fear of the invading army is now the fear of the unseen terrorist. // THE BAY TODAY  // From the time of European settlement, our relationship with Moreton Bay has been one of exploitation. It has only been in recent years that we have come to the realisation that the Bay’s resources are finite and that they are not automatically self regenerating The Bay’s main threat is from people. We have built the now large city of Brisbane on a river that drains into the centre of the Bay, and much of the Bay’s environmental problems would be solved if we could move Brisbane away from the Bay. But this is impossible. The best we can do is monitor what we put into the Bay – refuse, sewerage, storm water, industrial toxic waste, farm fertilizers, sediment from soil erosion etc. All these by-products of our civilisation have been building up over the two centuries of European occupation to have a devastating effect on the Bay’s once pristine waters. But there is hope. We are now at least aware of the problems and Government agencies and concerned public groups are now working to ensure that we control our use of the Bay, for it is only through regulation that we can reverse the effects of our overuse of the Bay and its resources. Peter Ludlow February 2006. Condensed from ‘A Stroll Through Time’ ( “ [|Moreton Bay Letters] ” ) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">