Recording Bribie History

Bibliography

Books that record aspects of the history of Bribie Island

Photo credit: Pixabay

Abrahams, Audrey (1999) Brothers of Bribie Heritage by Audrey Abrahams (daughter of Jim Maloney, one of the brothers). 

Amateur Fishermen's Association of Queensland: official history 1904-1997 (1998)

Bribie Island Lions Club: the first 25 years 1970-1995 (1995)

Bribie Island Surf Club: 75th anniversary: the history of the Bribie Island Surf Lifesaving Club 1923-1998 by P.J. Adams (1998)
Bribie Island Surf Club: 80th anniversary pictorial by P.C. Morey and P.J. Adams (2004)

Bribie State School 1924-1974 Golden Jubilee. (1974)

Caboolture: The Beauty & Lifestyle of our Shire, Vol 1, 1997.  Vol. 2, 2002.

Changing visions : Bribie island State School 75th anniversary 1924-1999. (1999)

Donald, Ron (1995) Fort Bribie, 1939-45: the story of wartime Fort Bribie and Toorbul Point.
Donald, Ron (2005) Moreton Bay, Queensland in World War II.
Donald, Ron (2008) Queen of Moreton Bay: an historical novel. [steamship Koopa].

Donald, Ron (2010) The Yanks called it "Terrible Point" : the story of the big Allied amphibious training base at Toorbul Point, Moreton Bay, Queensland in World War II.

Edwards, Chris (1998) In the Shadow of the Glass House Mountains: A chronological guide to the history and development of the Caboolture Shire and surrounding region, once covered by the original Caboolture Divisional Board, from 1770 to 1998.

Federick, Gladys & James G. Lergessner (2009) Bribie Island: a pictorial history.

Fischer, C (2011) Bribie Island’s Banksia Beach : the journey of a sleepy settlement to a vibrant seaside suburb.

Gill, JCH (1988)  Missing Coast : Queensland Takes Shape.

Groves, John (2006) North Bribie Island during World War II.

Groves, J.F. & J. (2007) Digger deeper into North Bribie Island during World War II.

Guthrie, Margaret D. (1999) The First Tourist : Commemorating the Bicentenary of Matthew Flinders’ Voyage in the Sloop Norfolk to Bribie Island and Moreton Bay 1799 - 1999.

Historic North Stradbroke Island by the North Stradbroke Historical Museum Association, 1994.

Holthouse, Hector (1982) Illustrated history of the Sunshine Coast

Horton, Helen (1983) Islands of Moreton Bay by Helen Horton, with drawings by Elizabeth McKenzie; colour photography by Steve Parish.

Jones, D & C. Jones (2015) The Lady of the Water [steamship Koopa].

Latcham, Ralph (1991) The mistique and philosophy of artist Ian Fairweather.

Lergessner, James G. (1993) White Specks on a Dark Shore : the Pumicestone Passage castaways.
Lergessner, James G. (2005) A Shrine to the artist Ian Fairweather.
Lergessner, James G. (2005) Bribie the convict weaver.

Lergessner, James G. (2006) I, Thomas Welsby.

Lergessner, James G. (2006) Oysterers of Moreton Bay.

Lergessner, James G. (2006) Seaward, South Esplanade, Bribie Island.

Lergessner, James G. (2009) The Sacred Ibis.

Love, W.R.F. (Bill) (1991) Bribie Dreaming: The Original Island Inhabitants.

Ludlow, Peter (2000) Moreton Bay People : the complete collection 2000. [revised edition published in 2007]

Ludlow, Peter (2007) Moreton Bay reflections.

McArthur, Kathleen (1978) Pumicestone passage : a living waterway.

McArthur, Kathleen (1985) The little fishes of Pumicestone Passage by "The Old Woman of the Sea".

Moongalba (Myora) sitting down place by Bernice Fischer, Rose Borey, Estelle Bertossi, Elle Durbridge, Jenny Cooke-Bramley, 1997. North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum Association.

Outram, Warwick (2002) Boorabee : Bribie's Koala heritage.

Outram, Warwick (2002) Bribie the Legend.

Outram, Warwick (2007) Journey to Bribie Island.

Outram, Warwick (2008) Bribie and the koala.  2nd edition, 2008.

Outram, Warwick (2008) Bribie Island Memories, or, taking up residence in 1974 and learning of a small community's outstanding promotions, and amazing publicity ventures.

Outram, Warwick (2009) Bribie's Golden Era.

Outram, Warwick (2009) Treasures of Bribie Island.

Outram, Warwick (2010) Birthday Girls at Bribie Island.

Outram, Warwick (2010) Bribie Island Before the Bridge.

Outram, Warwick (2010) Cradle site of Queensland.

Outram, Warwick (2011) Bribie from the beginning.

Outram, Warwick (2011) Bribie People and places.

Outram, Warwick (2011) Revisiting Heritage Tales of Bribie Island

Outram, Warwick (2012) Bribie a fascinating isle : a centenary project.

Outram, Warwick (2012) Bus to Bribie : a brief look at events, particularly in 1950-1963 when the community depended on a Bribie Island - Brisbane bus service.

Outram, Warwick (2012) Historical Snapshots of Bribie Island.

Outram, Warwick (2013) 50th birthday Bribie Island Bridge: a golden anniversary project.

Outram, Warwick (2013) First People on Bribie Island.

Outram, Warwick (2013) Frequently Asked Questions.

Outram, Warwick (2014) Answering Visitors questions about Bribie Island.

Outram, Warwick (2014) Bribie Golden Age centres.

Outram, Warwick (2014) Bribie or Boorabee : same place - different language.

Outram, Warwick (2014) Bribie’s first Aboriginal mission: established June 1877 at White Patch on Bribie Island, closed January 1879 / researched by Ron Powell.

Outram, Warwick (2014) In the footsteps of spirit ancestors; with photos and documented information / as told by Ron Powell.

Outram, Warwick (2014) Joondoburri Park: a Bribie community wish.

Outram, Warwick (2014) Two Bribie Suburbs.

Outram, Warwick (2015) Dual centenary 1912-2012.

Outram, Warwick (2015) Forty-two years at Bribie, the cradle site of Queensland.

Outram, Warwick (2015) In memory of Jessie Freeman: a friend to all / as told by Ron Powell to Warwick Outram.

Outram, Warwick (2015) Mission Point: Bribie Island site of the second Aboriginal Mission 1890-1892.

Outram, Warwick (2015) Passing the baton in the relay of residents joining, participating, then leaving the Bribie Island Community.

Outram, Warwick (2015) Prewar Bribie Island: 90-103 years ago as seen through the camera lense by Vera Campbell who entrusted her original prints to Ted Clayton.

Outram, Warwick (2015) Qld First Tourist Resort.

Outram, Warwick (2015) S S Cormorant : protecting Bribie Island 1958-1990 / research and cover painting by Ron Powell.

Pearce, Chris (1993) Through the eyes of Thomas Pamphlett: convict and castaway. [Preview on Google Books]

Pioneer families of the Sunshine Coast Pre 1920 Index 2004.

https://sites.google.com/site/genealogysunshinecoastinc/Home/gsc-projects/publications

Steele, J.G. (1972) The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District 1770-1830.  Published by University of Queensland Press, 1972, reprinted 1983.

Steele, J.G. (1984) Aboriginal Pathways in Southeast Queensland and the Richmond River.

The collected works of Thomas Welsby volumes 1 and 2 edited by Andrew Kilpatrick Thomson, 1967.

The Petrie Family - Building Colonial Brisbane. By Dimity Dornan and Denis Cryle. 1992.

Tom Petrie’s Reminiscences of Early Queensland by Constance Campbell Petrie. First Published: 1904, 2nd Edition 1932, Qld Classics Edition 1983.

Toohey, Ted (2009) A Chronological guide to Caboolture Shire History

Trim : a biographical tribute to the memory of Trim [the cat] (2001) Written by Matthew Flinders.  Illustrated by Annette Macarthur-Onslow.

Tutt, Stan (1973) Caboolture country : stories of the area once controlled by the Caboolture Divisional Board, Shire of Pine Rivers, Caboolture, Kilcoy, Landsborough, Maroochy and City of Redcliffe.

Tutt, Stan (1974) Pioneer days : stories and photographs of European settlement between the Pine and the Noose Rivers, Queensland.

Tutt, Stan (1977) By many campfires : stories and photographs of European settlement between the Pine and the Noose Rivers, South Eastern Queensland.

Tutt, Stan (1979) From Spear and Musket 1879-1979 Caboolture Centenary : stories of the area once controlled by the Caboolture Divisional Board.

Tutt, Stan (1995) Sunshine Coast Heritage.

Voices of the past : stories of Caboolture Shire by Rutherford, M., & Buchanan, R. (Eds.). (2000).

Welsby, Thomas (1937) Bribie the Basket Maker.

Wild White Men of Queensland (1959) By Sir Raphael Cilento and Clem Lack.

Young, M.M. (1992) Bribie Island: a collection of information for students.

Article September 2016

Historical Society plots Island's past
by Barry Clark
This article was published in RSL Beacon no. 182, Sep 2016, page 8.

WHEN Matthew Flinders and Bongaree first set foot on Bribie Island in 1799, they established the "Cradle site of Queensland.  Many years passed before anyone else came here, but three castaway convicts from Sydney ended up living with the Aboriginal people on the island and helped John Oxley find the Brisbane River in 1824. A penal colony was initially established at Brisbane, but when that closed and land was opened up to settlers, they progressively spread north and inland. 

It was not until 1859 that the State of Queensland was established and separated from NSW with its own governor. Very few others came to live on Bribie Island until the early 1900s, and even then they were just grazing cattle, cutting timber and gathering oysters. Despite the establishment of the first Aboriginal reserve on the island in 1877, by 1897 the last of the Aboriginal people, who had been numerous when Matthew Flinders arrived, had died. Bribie Island was regarded as “the meanest pieces of country in Australia”, according to a respected politician and explorer who visited briefly in 1891.

A fish cannery established at Bongaree at 1910 was the first real business enterprise here and it employed the few tough men who lived here. That fish cannery was established by a lady, Mrs Sarah Balls, who operated it for four years until 1914 when the resident population was less than 40. By then Bribie Island was being opened up to residents and visitors by the Brisbane Tug & Steamship company, which built a jetty at Bongaree and started regular trips by the steamship Koopa from Brisbane in 1912.

So … it is only just over 100 years that everything that you now see here on Bribie Island has been created.

The Bribie Island Historical Society was established by Barry Clark eight years ago in an attempt to capture the rich history of the island from some of the old timers and to share these fascinating stories and images with residents and visitors. He initiated a number of heritage plaques and signage along the Bongaree foreshore and has produced brochures and informative maps to showcase some of the heritage sites around the island.

In recent years the Historical Society has organised commemorative events and erected informative plaques to commemorate the centenary of the Bongaree Jetty and steamship era and the establishment of the township of Bongaree in 1912.  In 2013, they commemorated the 50-year anniversary of the building of the Bribie Bridge in 1963 with the erection of two plaques. In 2015, the centenary of Anzac was remembered with two commemorative plaques at the First Avenue memorial to those men from Bribie Island who “answered the call” in both world wars.

Barry Clark, also a Rotarian, is researching a number of signs to be installed at Rotary Park in Woorim to provide information about the remaining World War II structures and the strategic role of Bribie Island in the defence of Brisbane and Australia.

Bribie Island Historical Society will be holding its monthly meetings in future in the Anzac room of the RSL Club on the second Wednesday of each month, at which they have a variety of fascinating presentations on aspects of Bribie history and visiting guest speakers on a range of interesting topics. Guests, visitors and new members are always welcome.

The Historical Society committee, from right, Nancy Cameron
(treasurer), Barry Clark (founder), Lynne Hooper (president)
and Don Mullen, Bribie's pharmacist for more than 50 years.
Photo: Barry Clark

At the club’s recent annual general meeting, Lynne Hooper was elected president for a second year, Nancy Cameron back as treasurer and a new Secretary Jeanette Saviane. Past presidents Barry Clark, Graham Mills and Donna Holmes remain on the Committee.

Although it is little more than 100 years since people first settled here, the things that have happened, or have been proposed to happen, on Bribie Island are often quite surprising. 

A plaque in Brennan Park tells of a few people who had lived on the island for 50 years or more, and another on a rock in Fairweather Park tells of the 21 years spent in his grass hut by the internationally recognised recluse artist Ian Fairweather.

Members of the Historical Society and Toc-H at last year's
Coungeau House Centenary Celebration.
Photo: Barry Clark

Last year the society commemorated the centenary of Bribie’s most historic building, Coungeau House in Banya Street, and many dressed for the occasion to reflect on its 100 years.

The Historical Society has been creating a comprehensive database of all known Bribie Island history records and is always keen to hear from anyone with documents, photos or personal memories of times gone by.

You can talk to the Historical Society team most Tuesday or Thursday mornings at the Bribie Library or contact them on bribiehistoricalsociety@gmail.com or view extensive information on bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com.au

Nostalgia - Trip to Bribie by Ken Blanch 1988

Nostalgia

When a trip to Bribie Island was a big adventure by sea

By Ken Blanch

Published in The Sunday Mail Magazine, Sep 11, 1988, page 37.

Today [1988] a visit to Bribie Island is little more than a comfortable suburban run north from Brisbane; but 25 years ago [1963] a Bribie outing was an adventure.

Those were the days before bitumen roads and a bridge, when access to the quiet, bushland Moreton Bay island was by cruise boat from Brisbane or barge from Toorbul Point.

You had to be a real Bribie-lover to make the trip in those days.

Back in the 1950s you could still go by the old steamship Koopa, which took about three hours - including a stop at the Redcliffe Jetty if the weather permitted.

Published in The Sunday Mail Magazine, Sep 11, 1988, page 37

The Koopa, with its outmoded, smoke-belching coal furnaces, could fill your eyes with cinders and blacken you crisp summer clothes when the wind was contrary.

But she was an institution beloved by Brisbaneites and most other Queenslanders who knew her, and there was hardly a dry eye among Bribie addicts when they took her off the island run.

Who could forget the old steamer's grand staircase, leading to the saloon where cool salads were available in summer and hot snacks of soup and stews in winter?

Then there was the homely old weatherboard kiosk that stood by the island jetty, where you could sit down to strong tea and a home-cooked square meal before tackling the bone-shaking trip across the unsealed road to the surf side.

The cross-island journey was made on the back of a truck fitted with hard wooden seats, and covered by a galvanised iron canopy. Dust swirled around you in dense clouds, and, if it rained, you got wet. But, despite those small discomforts, a trip to Bribie was fun.

All that changed dramatically 25 years ago [1963] when a bridge was built across Pumicestone Passage and overnight Bribie was no longer either an island or remote. Sealed roads and endless streets of houses and businesses are now the order where peace and solitude once reigned.

In the old days you really wanted to go to Bribie. Now people do it without a second thought.

Anyhow, resident Bribie Nostalger Denny Field tells me the silver anniversary of the bridge that changed all that will be celebrated with the island's biggest carnival from October 5 to 10 this year [1988].  The festivities start on Wednesday, October 5 [1988], with a wine festival.  There are a celebrity golf event and a beer fest on October 7 [1988].  And the big week-end starts with aquatic events, birdman contest, Freeps concert, race meeting, fireworks, disco and ball on the Saturday.

Festivities on the Sunday provide the whole works from recovery breakfast through a bridge opening re-enactment, procession, raft race and Wickety Wak floor shows to a rock 'n' roll concert. And there's more on the following and final day.

A far cry from the trip a Sunday Mail colleague made by barge from Toorbul Point in 1955 when she wrote about getting mudbound for one and a half hours before she reached "Bribie Island, picturesque, its deep waters full of fish, its sloping beaches looking across to the dramatic contours of the Glass House Mountains, which should be an asset to Queensland".

They were talking about building a bridge in those days; but, then, they had been talking about building a bridge for 40 years, hadn't they?

"In the meantime," our intrepid reporter wrote, "the emus chase the visitors, the barge gets stuck in the mud, the old man kangaroos come and nibble in your backyard of an early morning and the road across the island does its best to dislocate your spine."

I hope all those revellers at the silver anniversary celebrations spare a minute or two to think about that.

Ken Blanch

For information about writer Ken Blanch

http://www.jacksim.com.au/ken-blanch.html 

http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/southeast/crime-writer-ken-blanch-remembers-the-young-men-who-fought-at-the-battle-of-long-tan-ahead-of-vietnam-veterans-day/news-story/17f47f8e637dbd0a3925ee3b24ebefc3 

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.