B Dux 6158

The following entry is from They Answered The Call.  Click here for the contents page.

Bertie DUX

Service number: 6158.  Age: 19 years 8 months.  Enlisted: 15 Jun 1916.

Occupation: Railway porter.  Next of kin: (father) Mr John Dux.

Address on enlistment:  Toorbul.

“Troop transport HMAT A24 Benalla, crowded with troops,
10 Oct 1914, Port Melbourne, Victoria.” [1]

Service Summary:

23 Jun 1916: Dubbo Depot.

25 Aug 1916: 18 Battalion, Liverpool, NSW.

16 Oct 1916: 17 reinforcement 23 Battalion.

23 Dec 1916: Embarked from Fremantle on A35 Berrima.

28 May 1917: Taken on strength 11 Battalion in the field.

24 Aug 1918: Wounded in action.

“In 1917 the 11^th battalion took part in the brief advance that followed the German Army's retreat to the Hindenburg Line. During a German counterattack at Louverval, France, in April 1917 Lieutenant Charles Pope was killed performing the deed for which he would be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. The battalion subsequently returned to Belgium to participate in the offensive that became known as the Third Battle of Ypres.

The battalion helped to stop the German spring offensive in March and April 1918, and later that year participated in the great Allied offensive launched east of Amiens on 8 August 1918. This advance by British and empire troops was the greatest success in a single day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendorff described as ‘the black day of the German Army in this war’.

The 11th Battalion continued operations until late September 1918. At 11 am on 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent. This armistice was followed by a peace treaty, signed at Versailles on 28 June 1919.

In November 1918 members of the AIF began to return to Australia. In February 1919, the 11th and 12th Battalions were amalgamated due to steadily declining numbers in both battalions. They remained so linked until their last members returned home for demobilisation and discharge.” [2]

8 Oct 1919: Returned to Australia from England on HT Benalla to Sydney.

15 Jan 1920: Discharged at Sydney.

Life Summary:

Bertie Dux (1896-1972) was the second youngest son of Johann Carl Gustav Dux (1852-1927) and Bertha Dorothea Lange (1860-1948) and was born at Toorbul on 6 Oct 1896. The Dux family resided in the Burpengary Creek/Toorbul area for many years.

Bertie Dux married Lottie Miranda Bradley on 19 Jul 1919 at Bedford Park, England during his leave from 11 Battalion and while he was gaining experience in Motor Carriage building.

After Bertie Dux was discharged, he and his wife lived in Sydney where he worked as a railway ticket collector and their first two children were born. By 1924, Bertie Dux, his wife and family had moved to Brisbane where Bertie Dux worked as a labourer.

Gustav Dux, a crabber by trade, is standing outside his slab hut, circa 1895. [3] 
It is believed that Gustav Dux in the photo above was the father of Bertie Dux.
The slab hut was probably close to Burpengary Creek / Deception Bay.

Bertie Dux enlisted three times to serve in the Second World War (9 Nov 1939-30 Jan 1940: Q187329 – 1 Grn Bn; 10 Jul 1940- 15 Oct 1940: QX14482 – 8 Div Amn Coy; 21 Oct 1940- 12 Dec 1940: Q59622 – 3 Wks & Pks) however by Dec 1940 he had been discharged as medically unfit.

In 1949, Bertie Dux’s youngest son, Norman Dux, married Daphne Turner, a great granddaughter of Fred Turner and Alma Turner (Kalmakuta) of Toorbul Point.

Bertie Dux, aged 77, died at Geebung on 2 Dec 1973.

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[1] Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial PB0246 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/PB0246/

[2] Australian War Memorial 11^th Australian Infantry Battalion https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51451

[3] Photo and caption source: Collection of Thomas Lane Bancroft. State Library of Queensland negative number 273 Available online at https://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/246845

A T Davis 2792

The following entry is from They Answered The Call.  Click here for the contents page.

Alexander Thomas DAVIS †

Service number: 2792.  Age: 23 years 11 months.  Enlisted: 1 Oct 1916.

Occupation: Fisherman.  Next of kin: (mother) Mrs Clara Bishop.

Address on enlistment:  Toorbul.

Men of 6 reinforcement 42 Battalion, Enoggera, 1916. [1]

Service Summary:

1 Nov 1916: 11 Depot Battalion.

26 Nov 1916: 6 reinforcement 42 Battalion.

23 Dec 1916: Embarked from Sydney on HMAT A64 Demosthenes.

13 Jul 1917: Taken on strength 42 Infantry Battalion in France.

9 Jun 1918: Wounded in action, gunshot wound to the skull.

“The 42nd Battalion was raised at Enoggera, on the outskirts of Brisbane, in December 1915 and became part of the 11th Brigade of the 3rd Australian Division. Due to sharing its numeric title with the famous Scottish regiment the Black Watch, the battalion became known as the "Australian Black Watch". This association was recognised with a bagpipe band.

After training in Australia and Britain, the 42nd deployed to France on 26 November 1916 and entered the frontline for the first time on 23 December. The winter of 1916-17 was horrendous, and the 42nd spent much of it in the front line, the remainder being spent alternating between training and labouring in the rear areas.

In 1917, the operations of the 3rd Division were focussed on the Ypres sector of Belgium. The 42nd participated in major battles at Messines on 7 June, Warneton on 31 July, Broodseinde on 4 October, and Passchendaele on 12 October. Even though the battalion was in a reserve role, the battle of Passchendaele proved particularly costly. It lost over a third of its strength, principally from German gas attacks, and trench foot caused by the sodden condition of the battlefield.

Belgium remained the scene of the 42nd Battalion's activities for the next five months as it was rotated between service in the rear areas and the front line. When the German Army launched its last great offensive in March 1918, the battalion was rushed south to France and played a role in blunting the drive towards the vital railway junction of Amiens.”[2]

20 Aug 1918: Returned to Australia from England on Sardinia arriving 27 Dec 1918.

15 Mar 1919: Discharged.

5 May 1919: Died of wounds.

Roll of Honour: Alexander Davis’s name is located at panel 135 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.[3]

Life Summary:

Alexander Davis (1892-1919) was the second son of Charles Brandon Davis (1863-1924) and Clara Stanley Carnegie (1872-1960) and was born 9 Oct 1892 at Toorbul. Clara Davis’s second husband was Ned Bishop (1885-1942). The Bishop family had resided in the area for many years. Alexander Davis was residing with his mother and stepfather at Toorbul when he enlisted.

On his return to Australia his mother Mrs Clara Bishop cared for him at their Toorbul home however on 5 May 1919 Alexander Davis, aged 26, died from complications of a head wound he had received in battle in France on 9 Jun 1918 and was buried in the King Street Cemetery, Caboolture.

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[1] Source: State Library of Queensland neg. no. 177042 http://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/209294, cited by Shauna Hicks in ANZAC Day Tribute to Alexander Thomas Davis, 21 Apr 2015, http://www.shaunahicks.com.au/anzac-day-tribute-to-alexander-thomas-davis/

[2] Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51482

[3] Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1727475

R J Campbell 6477

The following entry is from They Answered The Call.  Click here for the contents page.

Reginald Joseph CAMPBELL

Service number: 6477.  Age: 19 years 9 months.  Enlisted: 11 Apr 1918.
Occupation: Seaman.  Next of kin: (mother) Mrs Clara Campbell.
Address on enlistment:  Toorbul Point.

The quarterdeck of HMAS Brisbane covered with snow
while in Portsmouth Dockyard on 29 Mar 1919.[1]

Service Summary:

11 Apr 1918: Cerberus (naval training).

8 May 1918: HMAS Brisbane.

12 Jul 1919: Demobilized.

Service Details:

During Reginald Campbell’s service, HMAS Brisbane served in Australian waters, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, United Kingdom and Malaya on operational service and part tropical service.[2]

HMAS Brisbane (1) history from May 1918 to Jul 1919:

“From February to October 1918 Brisbane served in Australian waters on patrol duties due to the fear that more German raiders would be sent to the Pacific Ocean.

On 21 Oct 1918 Brisbane departed Sydney for England and was at sea enroute from Colombo to Aden when the Armistice of 11 Nov 1918 ended hostilities in the First World War. She reached Mudros, on Lemnos Island, on 26 Nov 1918 and spent a month operating with the Australian Destroyer Flotilla in the Eastern Mediterranean. Sadly two of her sailors (Stoker 2nd Class JF Godier and Able Seaman TJ Chitts) died from Spanish influenza on 2 Dec 1918 and were buried ashore at East Mudros Military Cemetery.

Brisbane sailed through the Dardanelles, to the Sea of Marmara, and then entered the Black Sea where she became part of British force that operated off Sebastopol and Smyrna; as a show of force to support White Russian forces engaged in fighting the Bolsheviks. In early 1919, Brisbane steamed to England and in late January commenced a refit, at Portsmouth dockyard which lasted three months.

Captain Walter Thring, RAN took command of Brisbane on 7 Apr 1919 and she sailed from Portsmouth for Australia on 17 Apr, via Malta, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore and Darwin. Earlier in the year the British Admiralty had presented to Australia six J-Class submarines. Escorted by the light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the submarine depot ship HMAS Platypus, the submarines had left Portsmouth for Australia earlier in the month. Later Sydney detached enroute and Brisbane assumed responsibility for the escort of HMA Submarine J5 and towed her for some of the voyage to Sydney. Proceeding ahead of Platypus and the other submarines, Brisbane and J5 arrived at Sydney on 27 Jun 1919.”[3]

Life Summary:

Reginald Campbell (1898-1972) was the second son of Joseph Campbell[4] (1871-1954) and Clara Elizabeth Payne (1874-1927) and was born 13 Jul 1898 in Brisbane. The Campbell family had lived at Toorbul Point from the early 1900s and Reg and his siblings had attended the Toorbul Point provisional school.  After his World War One naval service, Reginald Campbell was a seaman aboard the excursion steamship Koopa which travelled between Brisbane, Redcliffe and Bribie Island.

Reginald Campbell in S.S. Koopa uniform, 1920s [5]

Reginald Campbell married Vera Huet in 1933 and the couple resided on Bribie Island for the rest of their lives making their livelihood from their Campbell’s Cash Store and boat hire business on South Esplanade. The creek that ran beside their business was known as Campbell’s Creek (now known as Williams Creek) and the bridge over this creek was known as Campbell Bridge, South Esplanade.

      Campbell’s General Cash Store on the front verandah of their home Revehame[6]

Campbell’s boat shed on the beach at 

South Esplanade, adjacent to their home.[7] 

Reginald Campbell, aged 74, died in 1972 at Bribie Island and has a memorial at the Albany Creek Memorial Park.

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[1] Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial J03228 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C3514?image=1

[2] Source: NAA BP709/1 M35756 Service record 6477 Reginald Joseph Campbell

[3] Source: Royal Australian Navy HMAS Brisbane (1) http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-brisbane-i

[4] Joseph Campbell’s ancestors were Aboriginal people from Moreton Bay.

[5] Source: Ancestry.com, ID 1066cmd, accessed 9 Feb 2014.

[6] Source: Bribie Island Historical Society VC8_134 Vera Campbell’s photo album / Ted Clayton collection

[7] Source: Bribie Island Historical Society VC8_135 Vera Campbell’s photo album / Ted Clayton collection

W H Bonney 4681

The following entry is from They Answered The Call.  Click here for the contents page.

Walter Herbert BONNEY

Service number: 4681.  Age: 19 years 6 months.  Enlisted: 18 Oct 1915.

Occupation: Carpenter.  Next of kin: (mother) Mrs Mary Ann Bonney.

Address on enlistment: Toorbul.

Service Summary:

18 Oct 1915: 12 reinforcement 26 Battalion.

12 Apr 1916: Embarked from Sydney on HMAT Mooltan to England.

19 Dec 1916: Taken on strength 26 Battalion in France.

A page from the Service Record of Walter Herbert Bonney. (Typical of all Army enlistees.)    < Taken on strength from 12th reinf. France 19.12.16    < Pte proceeding O/seas to France per S.S. Victoria 12.12.16    < Pte T.O.S. of 2nd Div Sig Coy from 26th Bn A.I.F. as Sapper. 17.6.18

“In early 1917, 26 Battalion joined the follow-up of the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line and attacked at Warlencourt (1-2 Mar) and Lagincourt (26 Mar). For his valorous actions at Lagincourt, Captain Percy Cherry was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. On 3 May, the Battalion was also involved in the second attempt to breach the Hindenburg Line defences around Bullecourt. Later that year the focus of the AIF’s operations switched to Belgium. There, 26 Battalion fought in the battle of Menin Road on 20 Sep and participated in the capture of Broodseinde Ridge on 4 Oct 1917.”

Like most AIF battalions, the 26th fought to turn back the German spring offensive in April 1918, and in the lull that followed mounted "peaceful penetration" operations to snatch portions of the German front line. In one such operation in Monument Wood on 14 July the 26th Battalion captured the first German tank to fall into Allied hands - No. 506 "Mephisto". In another, on 17 July, Lieutenant Albert Borrella was awarded the Victoria Cross. Later in the year the 26th participated in the great offensive that began on 8 August, its most notable engagement being an attack east of Mont St Quentin on 2 September. The Battalion's last action of the war was the capture of Lormisset, part of the operation to breach the Beaurevoir Line, on 3 October 1918. The 26th Battalion was disbanded in May 1919.” [1]

17 Jun 1918: Taken on strength 2 Div Sig Coy.

29 May 1919: Returned to Australia from England on HT Rio Negro to Sydney.

Life Summary:

Walter Bonney (1896-1976) was the second youngest son of Walter Herbert Bonney (1860-1924) and Mary Ann Wallwood (1859-1933) and was born at Caboolture on 28 Feb 1896. The Bonney family had resided at Toorbul since the 1880s.

Bonney family home at Toorbul, 1902. [2]

Walter Bonney married Josephine Olive Fyfe in 1924 and the couple moved to Ingham the following year where Walter Bonney worked as a builder. By the late 1940s the couple had moved to Brisbane. Walter Bonney, aged 80, died 30 Jun 1976 at Brisbane and shares a memorial with his wife Josephine Bonney at the Albany Creek Memorial Park.

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[1] History of 26 Battalion A.I.F., AWM 224: MSS 156-157. AWM4/23/43/1-23/43/46.

[2] Source: Sunshine Coast Libraries Image P87452

M A Bishop 366

The following entry is from They Answered The Call.  Click here for the contents page.

Maurice Alexander BISHOP

Service number: 366.  Age: 23 years 6 months.  Enlisted: 28 Apr 1916.

Occupation: Horse breaker.  Next of kin: (mother) Mrs Mary Ann Bishop.

Address on enlistment: Toorbul.

M.A. Bishop [1]

Service Summary:

2 May 1916: 11 Depot Battalion D Company.

6 Jun 1916: 5 reinforcement 12 Machine Gun Company.

Did not proceed overseas.

20 Jul 1916: Discharged.

Life Summary:

Maurice Bishop (1892-1973) was the youngest son of James Bishop (1850-1922) and Mary Ann Lancaster (1847-1927) and was born at Caboolture on 16 Oct 1892.  The Bishop family resided at Toorbul for many years.

Maurice Bishop married Sarah Jane Berg in 1924 and the couple lived at Toorbul until the early 1930s when they moved to Dalby, where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Maurice Bishop, aged 81, died 24 Oct 1973 at Dalby and has a memorial at the Jandowae Cemetery.

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[1] Source: The Queenslander 23 Dec 1916, pictorial supplement p. 24.

Hector Holthouse

Remembering Hector Holthouse

and the former Hector Holthouse Room, Bribie Library
by Lynne Hooper

Hector Holthouse

After more than 20 years living on Bribie Island, prolific and popular historian and writer, Hector Le Gay Holthouse, died on 16th November 1991.  He was 76. 

While working as a Sugar Chemist in North Queensland, Hector started contributing stories to magazines, including the Sydney Bulletin, the Queenslander and other Australian journals. After war service he joined the staff of the Brisbane Telegraph, later becoming a lecturer in journalism at the University of Queensland. 

In 1967 Hector’s first book was published River of Gold: The Story of the Palmer River Gold Rush. In 1969 he gave up journalism and concentrated on historical writing.

Remembering Hector Holthouse
now displayed at Bribie Library
Source: Lynne Hooper 

In 1973 Holthouse was awarded a half-fellowship by the literature board of the Australian Council for the Arts.  His most popular book appeared that year: S’pose I Die: The Story of Evelyn Maunsell. 

Hector authored more than 30 books focusing on Queensland, many written while living with his wife, Sybil, in the house that he largely built himself in Hill Street, Bongaree. 

Hector donated his books to the Bribie Island Library and in the 1990s he was honoured at the Library with the naming of the “Hector Holthouse Room”.

Books by Hector Holthouse
1967 River of Gold: the story of the Palmer River Gold Rush
1969 Cannibal Cargoes
1970 Up Rode the Squatter
1971 Cyclone: a century of Australian cyclonic destruction
1973 Gympie Gold: a dramatic story of Queensland
1973 S’pose I Die: the story of Evelyn Maunsell
1975 Looking Back: the first 150 years of Queensland Schools
1978 Illustrated History of Queensland
1982 Illustrated History of the Sunshine Coast
1988 White Headhunter
1991 Cape York



REFERENCES:
Geoffrey A. C. Ginn, 'Holthouse, Hector Le Gay (1915–1991)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2014.

Could you store four tons of flour? by Jean Bruce
[article has photo of Mrs Evelyn Maunsell with author Hector Holthouse]. 
The Australian Women's Weekly Wed 19 Dec 1973, p. 15

Steamship era

Reminiscences of the Koopa days.

Bribie’s steamship era

by Doris Stanlake.

Near North Coast News Wed Mar 16, 1977.

Many people – particularly the elderly – often recall with great pleasure the early settlement on Bribie Island in about the year 1919 and associated with the island in following years was the steamship “Koopa”. And here I [Doris Stanlake] have endeavoured to recall the atmosphere the Koopa created for the residents of Bribie Island and the day trippers in those days. 

Steamship Koopa, 1934.
Photo: State Library of Queensland negative #8418

The Koopa steamed from the Custom House wharf in Brisbane to the Koopa Company’s jetty on Bribie Island two or three times a week, and these trips were so popular that the vessel was often packed to capacity. 

The crowd would gradually gather on the Brisbane wharf around 8 a.m., comprising mainly of happy families bent on enjoying the simple things of life. Mum and kids came armed with picnic baskets, and bathing suits in shopping bags. Dad, anticipating a good catch, would have a sugar bag and fishing tackle. By about 8.40 a.m. the supplies for the island would be loaded on board and the passengers filed up the gangway.

There might be some last-minute arrivals – a few businessmen, with expensive fishing gear, getting away from it all by spending a couple of weeks without the telephone and other worries. (Once on Bribie they would lunch at the little boarding house and later emerge as unrecognisable “tramps” to do battle with the fish.  All business aplomb would be thrown to the winds and they would be known to the Bribie-ites as “Old Bill”, “John”, “Claude”, etc.)

Children from the Wooloowin Brisbane school in the 1930s
on the Koopa picnic trip to Bribie Island.
Photo: Doris Stanlake, 1977.

On the Koopa morning tea was served below decks and a call was made at Redcliffe where goods could be off or on-loaded, more passengers could join the happy trippers.

After leaving Redcliffe jetty, the trip was felt to be really under way. Small children scrambled everywhere with ice cream and sticky sweets . . . the vessel would rock gently, and the sea breeze would blow; and long before the island was sighted the breeze would waft to the Koopa the smell of burnt pine and seaweed.

Skirmish Point, the most southernly point of Bribie Island, would come into sight and the boat would spring to life. Mum would get busy gathering her brood, putting them into their bathers and collecting the picnic baskets, ready for disembarkation. The men were engrossed in serious discussion about the wind and the tide while they assembled their fishing gear.

As the steamship glided up Pumicestone Passage, the smell of fish being cooked on wood stoves on the island would mingle with the fragrance of the pines. Everyone made ready to leap onto the jetty immediately the vessel was secured.

Open-decked motor boats moored to the side of the jetty were a picturesque sight laden with produce from the local dairy, fruit and oyster farms. One boat would have a pyramid of huge, yellow pineapples and bunches of bananas, another pile of shiny, pink-shelled, cooked sand crabs glistening in the sunlight in contrast to the lush green vegetables and water melons on display in the next boat. Then there were the fishing boats with their overnight catch of large mullet and reef fish, and cooked prawns.

People holidaying on the island were dependent, to a great extent, on these farmers for fresh supplies and would rally forth armed with bags and billy-cans to shop from the boats . . . great fun!

Then Ned Bishop’s boat would chug its way across the passage and take its place alongside the ramp, loaded to the waterline with anything his farm would produce. There were neatly sewn up bags of oysters, bright red mud crabs and a pile of “lean mutton” (which we all knew was goat flesh) as a welcome change from a steady fish diet. There were baskets of mulberries, mangoes, chokoes and Queensland nuts, while in the middle of the boat there would be two large cans of fresh milk. Accompanying the cans was a tin mug which was used to fill our billy-cans. Unhygienic? But we suffered no ill effects.

And so the day passed with the day trippers having fun and frolic in the sand and sea and the fishing lines reeling until half an hour before the Koopa’s scheduled departure time when her foghorn would give out a resounding blast to be heard all over the island. Then began the hasty packing up and trek back to the steamship. There would be bush walkers with bunches of boronia and wild flowers, groups of picnickers and mothers shepherding their suntanned families along the ramp and up the gang-plank. There they would await the men folk who would scurry along when the second foghorn blast sounded at a quarter of an hour before leaving time. On board the fish the men had caught were hung in the breeze on the captain’s bridge and duly admired by all.

Then came the third blast at departure time and the Koopa was released from her mooring and slid gently away from the jetty with always a group of local residents to watch her go.

And we – the locals – watched, perhaps a little regretfully, until the Koopa vanished from sight.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Reminiscences of the ‘Koopa” days. Bribie’s steamship era by Doris Stanlake. Near North Coast News Wed Mar 16, 1977.

BIHS note: Story 12 in Describing Bribie Island 1865-1965 was written by Doris' son Alex.