Bribie Heritage Plaques Walk

Bribie Island Heritage Plaques Waterfront Walk

Bribie Island Heritage Plaques Waterfront Walk Q150 Community Funded Program.  Initiated by the Rotary Club of Bribie Island and supported by Moreton Bay Regional Council in conjunction with Bribie Island U3A and Bribie Island Historical Society. 2009.

The opening ceremony for the unveiling of the 16 Heritage Plaques held Saturday 1st August 2009.  The program was initiated and managed by Barry Clark.

A 40 page book produced to document and launch the waterfront plaque walk at Bongaree.

Record Rainfall

South Esplanade

Campbell's Store

Camping Grounds

Bribie Island Heritage - A. Meston

Ian Fairweather

First Shop

Bribie Island Heritage - S. 
Tutt

First Avenue

Fishing Records

Welsby Parade

Bribie Island Wartime

First Car

Shirley Creek

Castaway Convicts

Fish Cannery








1. RECORD RAINFALL 

The greatest daily rainfall officially recorded anywhere in Australia fell near Pumicestone Passage on 3rd February 1893.  After 3 weeks of continuous rain, a record total of 907mm was recorded at Beerwah by Inigo Jones, in this one 24 hour period.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-record-rainfall.html

2. SOUTH ESPLANADE

From the 1920’s many large guest houses operated along here.  Proprietors met the “Excursion Ships” and carried guests luggage over creeks and sand tracks, offering the attraction of specialty food and entertainment.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-south-esplanade.html

3. CAMPBELL’S STORE

In the 1890’s Joe Campbell was an Oysterman in the Passage.  In the 1930’s his son Reg had a General Store & Boat Shed by this creek, when it was much larger and used as a boat harbour by campers and Dugong fishermen. 

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-campbells-store.html

4. CAMPING GROUNDS

In the 1920’s there were few shops, no services, and less than 100 permanent residents.  Many thousands came every week by Ship from Brisbane and pitched their tents here to enjoy cheap and healthy holidays.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-camping-grounds.html

5. BRIBIE ISLAND HERITAGE

“Bribie Island is one on the meanest pieces of country in Australia ….. A howling desert of tea-tree swamps, rank aquatic vegetation and unimaginable cussedness”. 

Archibald Meston (1891) - explorer, Author and Politician.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-bribie-heritage-meston.html

6. IAN FAIRWEATHER

After a lifetime of travel and adventure, in 1953 at the age of 62, this world famous artist came to live in isolation in a grass hut inland from here.  He created some of his finest paintings in this hut over the next 21 years until his death in 1974.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-ian-fairweather.html

7. FIRST SHOP 

A.H. “Artie” Bestmann kept bees and dairy cattle here from 1903.  Alfred Hall, a Brisbane grocer, built a house next door in 1913 and together they provided basic goods to visitors from a spare room.  In 1921 they built the “Hall and Bestmann Store” on this corner.
Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-first-shop.html

8. BRIBIE ISLAND HERITAGE 

“It might not be too much to claim, Pumicestone Passage and Bribie Island contain more history, written and unwritten, than any other place in Queensland”. 

Stan Tutt (1981)  -  Sunshine Coast Historian

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-bribie-heritage-tutt.html

9. FIRST AVENUE 

Originally named Campbell Rd., for the Director of the tug Company who had the road built from Bongaree to Woorim in 1923.  It was planned to be a four lane road and steam Tramway, but this did not eventuate although initially it was a toll road.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-first-avenue.html

10. FISHING RECORDS 

“Bribie jetty and its environs must be the most remarkable fishing place in Australia.  More black Groper have been caught here than any other spot in Australia.  A man known as the “Groper King”  caught many over 500 lbs”. 

Ted Shields (1947)  - Fisherman and Barge owner.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-fishing-records.html

 11. WELSBY PARADE

This road named for Thomas Weslby, Brisbane businessman, Historian, Sportsman and Author, who in 1937 at the age of 80, wrote the book “Bribie the Basket Maker” and thus created a legend about the Island and its name.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-welsby-parade.html

12. BRIBIE ISLAND WARTIME

Bribie Island and Toorbul point (now Sandstone Point) were major training bases for Navy and Army forces during World War 2. Many military structures are still visible along the Ocean beach, and a small Arms Store can be seen across this road.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-bribie-wartime.html

13. FIRST CAR

In 1918 A.H. “Artie” Bestmann drove the first car, a 1914 Talbot, to Bongaree.  With a young Ian Hall as his passenger, they did the 2 day drive from Brisbane along beach and bush tracks, and then by barge from Godwin Beach across the Passage.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-first-car.html

14. SHIRLEY CREEK

Bill Shirley built the first road from the jetty to Ocean Beach in 1923.  He ran a bus service and a Guest House and became Bribie’s first Councillor.  A wooden bridge replaced a single plank walkway here in 1935 as his first Council works.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-shirley-creek.html

15. CASTAWAY CONVICTS

In 1823 three Sydney convicts in a small boat were caught in a hugh storm which dumped them close to death on Moreton Island. They walked around Moreton Bay, thinking Sydney was nearby, and were the first white men to live on Bribie Island, being there for many months before recapture.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-castaways.html

16. FISH CANNERY

A Fish Canning factory operated near here from 1910 to 1914 owned by Mrs Sarah “Mum” Balls.  She also had many Hotels and Refreshment Rooms in Queensland and in 1929 built “Santa Barbara”, one of Brisbane’s grandest homes.

Further information at http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/q150-2009-fish-cannery.html

Fascinating Bribie History Revealed

The following article was published in The Bribie Islander, issue 18, January 2016, page 12.

Fascinating Bribie history revealed
Barry Clark - Bribie Island Historical Society & U3A Tutor.

Bribie Island has some quite remarkable and often surprising secrets to reveal ….

if you know where to look. 

Bongaree Foreshore in the 1960s
Source: Postcard folder kept by Ethel Smith.

Crowds awaiting bay steamer -
Steamship arriving at Bongaree Jetty 1930s
Source: Robertson family photos R10_08

   
   When James Cook sailed past, far off the coastline in 1770, he observed the far away volcanic outcrops and named them the “Glasshouses”, as they reminded him of the Glass making Factories in his distant homeland.
   When Mathew Flinders and his aboriginal companion Bongaree came to explore this Bay almost 30 years later in 1799, he was the first European to set foot on what is now Bribie Island. He explored and mapped Moreton Bay but failed to find the Brisbane river . He did row a small boat up what he named the Pumicestone river, and climbed one of the Glasshouse mountains.
   After that the first white people to actually live here came 24 years later in 1823, when 3 castaway convicts lost in a huge storm out of Sydney, were eventually washed up weeks later on Moreton Island. They were very lucky to be alive at all, and with considerable help from the native people they walked for months around the Bay and eventually lived for many months on Bribie Island island before being rescued.
   They were found almost a year later by those sent in search of a site for a new Penal Colony in Moreton Bay. The worst of the worst convicts from Sydney were initially sent to a small Penal Settlement at Redcliffe in 1824, which was relocated after a few months to what is now the city of Brisbane.
   The Penal Colony was closed after a few years and Queensland was opened up to exploration and free settlement.

The new State of Queensland

Archibald Meston
Archibald Meston did not think much of Bribie in 1891
Source: John Oxley Library, StateLibQld_1_53084

   In 1859 Queensland was established as a new and self governing State of Australia, separated from NSW.
   Within just a few years the extensive Aboriginal population of Moreton Bay had been reduced to just a few.  To protect their declining numbers Queensland’s first Aboriginal reserve was established in 1877  here on Bribie Island at Whitepatch. It lasted only a short time, as did the Aboriginal School at Mission Point in 1891.
In 1891 Bribie Island was briefly visited by Archibald Meston, an Explorer, Author and Politician, and an official “Protector of the Aborigines”. He made this comment…...

“Bribie Island is one of the meanest piece of country in Australia……a howling desert of tea-tree swamps, rank aquatic vegetation and unimaginable cussedness.” Archibald Meston.

Hall & Bestmann Store -
The only shop on Bribie in the 1920s
Source: John Oxley Library, Mbrc_P1675

   It is therefore quite remarkable that just a few years later the Directors of the Brisbane Tug & Steamship Company decided to invest tens of millions of pounds, building a steam ship and leasing large areas of the Island, to turn Bribie into Australia’s first Island holiday destination.
In 1912 they built a Jetty at Bongaree, the steamship "Koopa" was steamed out from UK to Moreton Bay to start regular "Excursion" trips from Brisbane via Redcliffe to Bribie Island.

 
The next 20 years saw Bribie develop as a destination for mass tourism, with many thousands of visitors coming by steam ships every weekend and holiday, to enjoy a cheap and healthy holidays here.

Bribie Jetty - Huge crowds swarm off steamships in 1930s
Source: Robertson family photos R10_09

   At Christmas and Easter holidays there were more people camped along the foreshore at Bongaree than lived in the entire Caboolture Shire at that time.

Boom and Bust
   These “boom” years for Bribie tourism were interrupted in the 1930’s by the “Great Depression”, and soon after that came World War 2. These events led to great changes on the island as the Military moved in , most residents were moved out, and Bribie Island became a strategic training and defence location throughout the War years.

Banya Street in the 1940s with cows wandering about.
Source: Postcard folder, Murray Views.

   The “excursion” trade resumed again after the War, but by now the Motor Car was becoming the favoured form of transport, and more people braved the long and bumpy road trip to bring their car by ferry barge to the Island.
   By 1963 a bridge had been built and the Island was joined to mainland Australia.
   Looking back over those years since the first people came here, the Island has experienced some remarkable events, many of which often surprise residents and visitors.


Some things that may surprise you about Bribie are …

- There are over 50 Aboriginal sites officially gazetted on the Island, representing  occupation over many thousands of years.
- The Water Tower in the Caravan Park at Bongaree is on the site of a large Aboriginal shell midden.
- In the early days this area was known as “the Hill”, and was the highest point on the Island, before it was levelled.
- “Red Beach” is a name carried over from the War Years when Australian and US troops practiced beach landing craft training.
- Australia’s first Opera was written by Emily Coungeau in her grand home built in 1915, still standing in Banya Street, Bongaree.
- In the 1960’s an Ionospheric Research Centre was established by UQ on Bribie Island to study the behaviour of Radio signals.
- In 1968 the former operator of the Bribie car ferry service was required to pay $500,000 for unpaid back taxes.
- When the Bribie Island Bridge was officially opened to traffic in October 1963 a grand Ball was held at Bongaree.

Bribie Island is wonderful place to live, and has always had strong sense of community and a desire to preserve the unique nature of "Island Life" which may be in danger of becoming lost in our greater Regional structure .

Over the years the residents of Bribie Island made three very determined, but in each case unsuccessful, attempts to break away from Caboolture Shire and establish Bribie Island as its own Shire. These attempts at secession were in 1914, 1932 and 1967, reflecting various periods of significant growth and change over the years.

Sunshine Coast Historian and Journalist Stan Tutt made this comment about the area:

 “It might not be too much to claim, Pumicestone Passage and Bribie Island, contain more history, written and unwritten, than any other place in Queensland.” Stan Tutt.

Dorothy Schulte interview mentions Bribie during the war years

Dorothy Schulte interview mentions Bribie during the war years

The MBRC website "Redcliffe Remembers the war years 1939 to 1949" has a number of interesting transcripts from interviews held with elderly residents. 

Of particular interest to Bribie Island is the interview with Dorothy Schulte

An archived text version of Dorothy's interview available at:

https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20060207225532/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/54988/20060207-0000/www.redcliffe.qld.gov.au/redclifferemembers/01_cms/details1acc.html

Dorothy in the 1970s
source: Shirley collection, BIHS.