Toorbul Days 3 : Early Events

Roy Bliss (1922-2015) was a boat builder of Moreton Bay and owned the bay cruiser Ardarth. In the following poem, Roy mentions his grandmother's brother Charlie Brown (1874-1953) who was a jeweller in Brisbane before moving to Toorbul in 1919 to work as an oysterman. Roy writes Charlie "engraved pictures on pearl shell, mainly depicting a yacht". Later in the late 1940s and early 1950s Charlie Brown lived on Bribie Island.

If you have one of Charlie Brown's engraved pearl shells or any other information about Charlie's life at Toorbul or Bribie Island, please send BIHS an email so we can record the details.

 Toorbul Days 3 : Early Events

By Roy W. Bliss

(Reproduced with the kind permission of the family)

I arrived at Toorbul when only three weeks old,

I was a cranky little B-aby, so I've been told.

We rented Bill Freeman's house up towards Elimbah Creek,

About half a mile north from Dad's parents, so meek.

Toorbul Days Sketch by Roy W. Bliss (c)

In a hut near the beach lived Grandma's brother Charlie Brown,

A talented person who just could not live in town,

He engraved pictures on pearl shells, mainly depicting a yacht.

Made a one-string fiddle, which he played quite a lot.

Charlie helped farm the oysters and on us kids he would dote.

A few years later on, he built his own boat.

Grandpa nurtured his oysters, he worked really hard,

Grew passionfruit, grapes and vegies in his half acre backyard.

His work boat was flat-bottomed and eighteen feet long,

He rowed standing up as he sang his best song.

Grandma was so gentle, us kids she would mind,

Hard times she was having, she was a saint and so kind,

Mum had her hands full with my brother and me,

Dad ran his launch to Bribie, to take fishing parties to sea.

There's no future in oysters, my Dad came to see,

So we moved back to Brisbane, Mum, Dad, Ossie and me.

Dad sold the boat's engine and pushed the hull up the creek,

So that she wouldn't sink far because of her leak.

It was about 1925 that decision was made,

And Dad got the chance to go back to his trade.

Back at old Toorbul, Grandpa looked ahead,

Whilst rowing his boat to his old oyster bed.

With his snake stick in hand along the foreshore he hiked,

Not much money in oysters but it's the lifestyle he liked.

Ned Bishop, two miles south, jovial and rash,

He was plump and pleasant and wore a walrus moustache.

We took the train to Caboolture, to co-ordinate with Old Ned.

He loaded groceries for Toorbul and charged us two bob a head.

He drove his old Essex, knew every bump on the track,

And if he missed one, he would sometimes go back.

His lovely daughter Adie, a real farm girl of course.

Would deliver the milk, riding bareback on her horse.

The bird life at Toorbul, spoonbills, osprey, cormorants and swans,

Cranes, seagulls, butcherbirds, parrots and wild ducks in their ponds.

Dark green foliage, white beaches, blue waters and sky.

Magnificent Glasshouse Mountains, to the northwest they lie.

I have crammed in these things as they came to my mind,

I would never have wanted to leave them behind.

I could appreciate the beauty in this place by the sea.

The view from our Brisbane home was the Toowong Cemetery.

In July 1929 when I was aged seven,

My sister Dorothy arrived directly from heaven.

My grandparents stayed on at Toorbul until the war years,

A bit late in their lives to start new careers.

It's now many years since they both passed away,

One fails to think properly until one's old and grey

I hope I said, "Thankyou," for all they had done,

It helped me through life, and I had so much fun.

(c) Roy W. Bliss

Poem is accompanied by sketches of a house with stairs and tank on the side of the house (copy above), a man named Ned and a car, a man standing up rowing a small dinghy with four of the Glasshouse Mountains in the background.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We acknowledge the kind permission of the Bliss family allowing BIHS to reproduce Roy Bliss' poem and one of his sketches on this blog. 

Further reading

Poem: Glimpses of the sea by Roy W. Bliss
https://woodenboat.org.au/wp-content/uploads/file_uploads/The-Log/2018/18-02_The_Log_February_2018.pdf

Vale - Roy Bliss
The Log (Wooden Boat Association of Queensland Inc) Feb 2015, p. 4-5.
https://woodenboat.org.au/wp-content/uploads/file_uploads/The-Log/2015/15-02-The-Log-FEBRUARY-2015.pdf

Story 18 Describing Bribie Island

The following story is one of 27 stories presented in Describing Bribie Island 1865-1965: historical first-hand accounts of visiting Bribie Island produced by the Bribie Island Historical Society in 2017.  

Reminiscences of Wendy McNeil (1988) 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wendy McNeil nee Harrison’s (1931-1994) parents were John Harrison (1882-1956) and Kathleen Harrison (1895-1983). Kathleen Harrison nominated Charlotte street be named for local identities Charlie Brown and Lottie Tripcony (Char-lotte). 

For the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Bribie Bridge in 1988, Wendy McNeil shared her personal reminiscences in an article entitled The Harrison family – Reminiscences which was published in the Bribie Times, 3 October 1988, page 22. 

---ooo--- 

My mother used to travel to Bribie way back in the days of the Koopa for holidays and did so over fifty-five years ago. 

As a child, I have lovely memories of going to Bribie on the Koopa, staying at the cafe boarding house on the beach near the jetty and throwing my line in from the cafe verandah and catching my first fish! (A gar.) 

We used to go out on the second jetty up near the creek entrance and watch 'Old Deafie' catch pilchards in his net to sell for bait. 

In those days, there was a little kiosk right at the end of the jetty selling fish and oysters freshly caught and crabs too. 

We used to ride on an old tilly with seats across the back (wooden of course), no roof; over to Ocean Beach and that was joy untold. 

The first road to Woorim beach.
Photo: Wendy McNeil

Outside Winston's store on the corner (First Avenue and Toorbul Street) that is now a supermarket, there were seats and a flight of 4 wide steps up into the shop and a big tree just in front with seats around it and all the old identities used to gather under the 'tree of knowledge' and expound on world affairs. 

In later years when the Koopa ceased to run, we came across on the barge for 50 cents later $1. That was in our old utility and the road from Caboolture was unsealed and corrugated and one time my brother lost a wheel barrow out of the back and we were always 'doing in' springs etc. 

Whiting used to be very plentiful and easily caught from the beach. I remember on our honeymoon at Bribie thirty-two years ago my husband and I caught very large delicious rock whiting up at White Patch and some flathead as well. 

My mother had lived on Bribie at Charlotte Avenue for thirty-two years up till the 6th Jan 1983 when, due to failing health, she came to live at Gatton with me. She rode her push bike for many years up till she was 84 years and was a well-known sight on it. 

She learned to ride the bike when she took over the postal run (66 years old) at Bribie while my sister Alice who was the mail contractor had her daughter Sylvia. Mum helped Alice sort the mail for a long time too. 

She and Alice inaugurated and ran the Bribie youth club for years and very successfully too. She belonged to and held office in the Pensioners League, the Progress Association, G.A.P. Country Womens, Toc H and raised funds for the school, ambulance and the Methodist church. She was organist at the church for many years also. At 79 she asked to be made Scout Mistress but was turned down due to her age! 

I know she was the only person who publicly stood up against the bridge being put over to the island as she foresaw, and rightly so, that it would be the end of an idyllic age when life was peaceful, calm and unhurried. 

It spoilt the Bribie that we knew and loved so well but created a new Bribie that the modern generation enjoy in a different way.