Lest We Forget

 Past commemorations of ANZAC Day on Bribie

1950 - 1978

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1950 - ANZAC Day Memorial

ANZAC Day Memorial on Bribie, 1950
source: JJ01_001 Jean Jarmey nee Britnell collection

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1969 - Laying the Wreath

Bribie Star v7(21) 9 May 1969 p.9

1969 : "The commemoration of the 54th Anniversary of Anzac Day on Bribie Island was a credit to the community. The overcast skies which seemed to lend a solemnity to the occasion did not deter the large crowd that gathered for the service.

Thirty-two veterans of both wars lead the Anzac Day Parade, which commenced at the Bribie State School and marched to the roll of drums of the school band, resplendent in scarlet uniforms. Then followed the Bribie Island Boy Scout Troop with a vanguard of state school children.

Many veterans who did not march stood at attention whilst the Salute was taken by Lt. Commander G.L. Boyd, R.A.N.R. 

President of the Bribie Island Branch of the R.S.L., Mr F. Lacey thanked all present for their attendance of an occasion of significance to returned men and their families.  The First Loyalty Resolution was given by Mr Noel Young and the first address was presented by Father F.C. Ailwood, C. of E. The second resolution was presented by Cheryl Dyer and the third by Sandra Caird.

Wreaths were laid by Caboolture Shire Council, R.S.L. Bribie Island Sub-Branch and Ladies' Auxiliary, Toc H, C.W.A. and by other Island organisations as well as presenting books to the State School Library in honour of Anzac Day.

The Bugler played 'The Last Post', the flag was lowered and many choked with emotion as they remembered loved ones who did not return.

The veterans and friends and official guests retired to the Bribie Island Bowling Club where the combined R.S.L. Ladies Auxiliary, Toc H and the C.W.A. had set out a lavish morning tea. Mr G. Dyer thanked Lt. Comm. Boyd and Father F. Ailwood for their participation in the ceremony. Mr A. Thornely proposed a vote of thanks to "The Ladies", to which President of the Ladies Auxiliary, Mrs D. Watkins responded. Cr Johnson proposed a vote of thanks to the Bribie Island Bowling Club for use of the premises to which Mr A. Loi responded.

Anzac Day celebrations concluded at an open house held in the afternoon at the Bongaree Bowling Club."

Excerpted from: Bribie honours fallen heroes. Bribie Star v7(21) Friday May 9th 1969, page 1.

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1975 - Anzac Day parade at Bribie Island

Anzac Day parade at Bribie Island in 1975
Photo: Stan Tutt. From MBRC Library collection P1798

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1978 - Anzac Day parade at Bribie Island

Veterans of the 1914 war at Anzac Parade on Bribie Island in 1978. The ceremony was held at the Anzac memorial, corner of Toorbul Street and First Avenue.
L to R: Eric Watson, Alf Duncanson, Ted Mawhinney, Roy Porter, Harold Braun.
Photo: Sam Hawkins. From MBRC Library collection P1803

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References:

Bribie honours fallen heroes. Bribie Star v7(21) Friday May 9th 1969, page 1, 9.

Anzac Day plans - Committee formed to organise and conduct the Anzac Day Memorial Service [on Bribie]. Bribie Star v7(19) 11 Apr 1969 p.1

1954 Celebrations Switching On Electricity Supply for Woorim

 Electric Light "Switching On" Celebrations

Ocean Beach * Woorim * Bribie Island

Saturday 8th May 1954

Programme for "Switching On" Celebrations
Saturday 8th May 1954
source: KB02_011

Programme of Events!

Sports and Treasure Hunt for Children

Caboolture Ambulance Entertainment

Official "Switching-On" of Electric Light

4KQ Fine and Dandy Show.

Modern and Square Dancing

...... Stay awhile in the brilliant sunlight atop the high sand dunes - watch the heaving sea, whose booming voice is music in your ears. Inhale that pure ozone till your lungs expand and rejoice at your good fortune in having chosen for your holiday - "The Isle of Mystic Charm" - Bribie Island. ...

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In a recent Letter to the Editor, J. Rossborough recalls the "Turning on of the Power" event:

"In my younger days I lived in North Street Woorim - it was just a sandy track and many a car bogged  in the loose sand. We had a milkman who delivered milk and blocks of ice three times a week. With no electricity most folk had an ice chest. It was my task to empty the water dish underneath that collected the melted water.

My mother was a chef at the hotel at the time. I think the Dudley Family were licensees. We had to chop the wood for the wood stove, peel the vegetables and start the evening meal.

Then it was time to light the Kerosene and carbide lights so we could commence doing our home work.

The streets were graveled in the 50's much easier to ride our bikes to the shop.

The hotel had a verandah on the front of the building and it was on this verandah that the official Turning on of the Power to Bribie island took place. Radio 4BK from Brisbane broadcast live on the night. The Premier of Queensland at the time Frank Nicklin turned on the power and a lot of other Dignitaries gave speeches. There was also other entertainment. (Radio 4BK) is now an FM station.

Our first appliance purchase was a Charles Hope Refrigerator, no more emptying that ice chest water.

We still kept our wood stove well into the Sixties."

REFERENCE:
Letter to the Editor by J. Rossborough. [reprinted with permission of J. Rossborough]
The Bribie Islander, issue 134, 26 Feb 2021, page 69.

Fishing on Bribie in the 1920s and 1930s

 Fishing on Bribie in the 1920s and 1930s

Bribie Island
(with a similar view to the 1937 photo below)
This photo won first prize in Class C Kodak Competition for R.J. Davies, Bribie.
Source: The Australasian Photo-Review, June 15, 1923, p. 311.

1923 July - Bribie fishing

Mr A.E. Godwin writes :- The roughness of the waters for the past week has unquestionably marred the pleasure and takes of many anglers on Bribie fishing grounds and Redcliffe anglers journeying to Bribie have been somewhat disappointed with their catches, the fish being on the small size. However, a few specimens of jew and some fine schnapper and squire have been hagged, the list being headed by Mr. E.H. Freeman with a total of 32 for the day, with Mr. R. Campbell next.

Last week-end some very choice fish of a pleasing size were caught by a party of Bribsane anglers up the passage, under the guidance of Mr. McPherson.

The sea mullet seem to be evading Bribie Passage, although now is the season, and many visitors to Bribie have been disappointed in this direction.

During the two hours' stay of the Koopa at Bribie some fine bream have been caught, particularly by some enthusiastic lady anglers, while, although on the scarce side, the size and quality of whiting caught were excellent.

Some of the finest rock cod the writer ever saw were caught in the passage during the week.

The Daily Mail (Brisbane) Sun 8 Jul 1923 p. 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218209720

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This unusual photo was taken at Bribie Island Beach, as a storm was approaching.
Half guinea is awarded to Mrs Bert Spring, Barter Street, Gympie.
Source: The wireless weekly : the hundred per cent Australian radio journal, v.30(17) 22 Oct 1937, page 79

1937 January - Record at Bribie Island Cottage

MANY parties during the holidays had fine fishing. Twenty-seven anglers stayed at Bribie Island cottage, and this is the record number of guests the A.F.A. has had there in a holiday period.

One party of seven at Donnybrook, up the passage, secured full creels of mixed fish, bream, flathead, and squire providing the greatest number. Another party of eight, fishing in the same waters, caught 101 mixed fish a few days later. ... 

At Bribie G. Shaw hooked a 7lb snapper on a horse-hair trace line.

The Courier Mail Fri 8 Jan 1937 page 10 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36874780

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REFERENCES

1923 Photo Bribie Island (with a similar view to the 1937 photo). This photo won first prize in Class C Kodak Competition for R.J. Davies, Bribie. Source: The Australasian Photo-Review, June 15, 1923, p. 311.

Bribie fishing. source: The Daily Mail (Brisbane) Sun 8 Jul 1923 p. 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218209720

Record at Bribie Island Cottage. The Courier Mail Fri 8 Jan 1937 page 10 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36874780

1937 Photo with caption: This unusual photo was taken at Bribie Island Beach, as a storm was approaching. Half guinea is awarded to Mrs Bert Spring, Barter Street, Gympie. Source: The wireless weekly : the hundred per cent Australian radio journal, v.30(17) 22 Oct 1937, page 79. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-707770345

Living on Bribie in 1960

60 years ago! 

The following articles and photos provide a glimpse of life on Bribie in 1960.

Living on Bribie in 1960

Shore is a mystery! 

NEARLY HALF a mile from the nearest water, lined up on stumps in a street of conventional houses on Bribie Island in Queensland's Moreton Bay, is an old boat converted into a comfortable dwelling with electricity laid on and a rainwater tank at the back door.

There is some mystery about the boat. Neither its present occupier nor anyone else appears to know how it got there, or when, or why.

Time has defeated those curious people who have tried to find out whether the boat has even been in the water or if it was built in its present position by an enthusiast who then decided he liked boat-building better than boating.

Whatever the answer, she's a watertight little craft and will be very handy if ever the area floods when the occupied can cast off from the stumps and sail to high ground.

Photo and article from Australasian POST June 16, 1960, page 25

Update Jan 2021: The boat may have been owned by Sam Hawkins and could have been located in Nulu Street.

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Wanderer's Rest!

BACK to her old home after more than 50 years’ service in a variety of jobs, one of Brisbane’s earliest pilot vessels, Cormorant has at last retired.

From 1902 Cormorant was stationed at the southern entrance of Pumicestone Channel, which separates Bribie Island from the mainland.

Eventually Cormorant was replaced and served as a coal barge and gravel carrier on the Brisbane River until she was beached.

Recently, however, the owner of a block of flats on Bribie Island, finding his property threatened by erosion, bought the Cormorant and had her towed to her final resting place.

The old ship is now at home only a few hundred yards from the station where she began her career as a pilot ship.

Photo and article from Australasian POST October 13, 1960, page 29.

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. 

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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.

1954 Bribie Island cyclone

 1954 Bribie Island Cyclone

by Paul Clark and Christine Lloyd (nee Clark)

written in 2006

Our 1954 holiday was most unforgettable. We went to Bribie Island camping. After about a week, a cyclone was coming down the coast. We tried to get off the island, but the wind and the seas were already rising, and the barge to the mainland had stopped its run before we got to its terminus. Waves on the Pumicestone Passage were already high, and we saw a yacht dragging its anchor as it was being blown down the channel. We went back to the ocean side of the island, and camped behind a bougainvillea bush for the first night. When it got too windy, we moved into one of the concrete gun emplacements left from the war.

At the height of the cyclone, we could not go outside, and we could hear and feel the waves pounding on the other side of the fort. Cyclones were not rated in those days, but I have read since that it would have been a category three today. After it was over, we went out to look at the devastation. When the wind died down, we went for a walk along what was left of the dunes. In the area where people walked to the beach, there were lost coins each sitting on top of a cone of sand. They had compacted the sand enough to stop the wind blowing it away.

We could not leave because the road on the mainland was covered with trees which had blown down. An electricity line crew was on the island, and they used their gear to clear the road and restore power. The beach was cut back about 100 metres, and the lifesavers' surf boat, which had been hauled to the top of the dunes, was gone. Some houses on high stumps were leaning at crazy angles.

Chris' memories from this time: I remember huge trees crashing around our tent on the first night. I was grateful that Dad was an Army man and knew how to pitch a tent wisely. Some tents were ripped to shreds. I was also aware that we were running out of food and money. We could not leave the island as the car ferry was not operating. Dad checked this on an old "wireless" with very poor reception.

We collected many eugarie bivalve shells (called pipi in NSW) that came in with the tide and were trying to bury themselves quickly in the sand. We had to dig them out with our feet and Mum cooked them to make soup. I was not fond of the taste but beggars can't be choosers. I also remember the vile smell of the underground fort which had been used as a toilet. In those days public toilets were very scarce. 

I have checked the internet and found out that this cyclone was called the GOLD COAST CYCLONE by the Queensland Bureau of Meteorology and occurred from 17 February to 19 February 1954. Clement Wragge named cyclones in the late nineteenth century but this lapsed with his retirement in 1902. Names were reintroduced by BOM in 1963.

We went for walks along the beach and found an old car upside down on the beach. It had apparently floated on its tyres from the mainland. The sand from the dunes had formed a sand bar out to sea and some fishermen were out on this fishing towards the Pacific Ocean. Fishermen on the beach were catching fish in the trough, so the ones on the bar simply turned around and fished back towards the shore. As the bar was under water, it looked strange. We saw swans out at sea, and sharks cruising off the beach.

When we went over to the channel side of the island, there was a mess. Trees had fallen across boats, and the sea had risen into the houses in a storm surge. 

Cyclone damage to roof of building on Bongaree Jetty,
February 1954
Photo: Barbara Henderson - BH99_034

While we were driving back along Toorbul Point on the mainland, we stopped to look at some flowers in the bush. We could hear a low droning noise when we got to the flowers, and suddenly we were attacked by a huge cloud of mosquitoes. We had to race back to the car and drive with the windows open to blow them out of the car. We later heard that this cyclone had wrecked the Redcliffe Jetty and houses along the coast as the storm surge lifted surf into the houses.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This article is reproduced with permission. Thank you to Christine Lloyd (nee Clark) and the Ipswich Genealogical Society Inc.

Bribie Island Cyclone by Paul Clark and Christine Lloyd (nee Clark). Bremer Echoes: the journal of the Ipswich Genealogical Society Inc., v.24(1) March 2006, p. 14-15.

Photo - Cyclone damage to Bongaree Jetty, February 1954 - Thank you to Barbara Henderson. BH99_034

1928 Hazardous boat journey to Bribie

The following article appeared in The Telegraph, 27 April 1928 and gives a descriptive account of the journey from Brisbane to Bribie to collect a sick man and convey him to a hospital in Brisbane.

A Hazardous Trip. The Storm Flayed Bay.

At 4.30 p.m. on April 18 [1928] a full south-east gale was raging in Moreton Bay with very fierce cloud bursts of blinding rain.

At this time, Mr James Crouch, of Byron Street, Bulimba, proprietor and skipper of the passenger trading launches Radio (65 feet) and Twilight II (48 feet 6 inches), and the 18 feet racing boats, Queenslander III and J.C., received an urgent telephone message from Mr James Clark, of New Farm, of pearl shell fame, and who also is a veteran in local sailing racing, and owner-skipper of many boats for pleasure, trading and racing.

Mr Clark had previously received a message from Toorbul, Bribie, stating that his elder brother, Steven (1), was seriously ill. Having failed to obtain transport aid from other regular sources, owing to the severity of the weather, Mr Clark approached Mr Crouch (2), and the latter immediately undertook the hazardous journey within an hour of receiving the message. With his two sons, Bert and Cecil, and other assistance, they provisioned the ship, and at 5.30 p.m., with an ambulance bearer and invalid stretcher and equipment aboard the Radio, left for Bribie. Radio is a comparatively new launch that has served the sailing clubs as a flagship, and she had not previously been tested in heavy weather in open waters. She is purely a pleasure boat for passenger service, and has a very large awning, her beam being 14 feet and draft 4 ft. 6in., with high bulwarks all round, and watertight raised decks covering the fore and aft cabins and the engine room, the latter being amidships. The power equipment is a 45 h.p. Palmer marine engine, which was the sole propelling power, so that any engine trouble meant danger in the sever circumstances. 

The Radio cut out ten miles an hour, but it was dark when she entered the heavy seas at the Pile Light House, whence a course was set due north by the compass. So black did the night become that those on board could not even see each other at arm’s length.

The Pile Light House
on a calm day
SLQ 39669

When the wide expanse of the Bay was reached mountainous seas were encountered, and there was great excitement among those aboard the Radio. The boat was severely tossed about. Neither a beacon light nor a land mark was discernible; all those aboard knew was that they were proceeding north. The compass told them that.

The storm raged and the Radio raced on the billows at the rate of 20 miles an hour until the wave pace beat her and let her down gently in the trough for the next sea to take and toss her like a cork. So formidable did the strain become at this point that the engine had to be put into neutral and the launch travelled under storm pressure only for nearly half an hour. Heavy steering was necessary to hold the course. At 9.30 p.m. the Bribie leading lights were picked up and Radio was berthed at Mr Clark’s Toorbul jetty at 10 p.m. to the great relief and comfort of the party. Mr Clark’s chief concern was for the comfort and safety of his sick brother, and he was anxious to get him aboard to enter on the return journey without delay. But the weather was against this, and it was not until 4.30 the next morning that the patient was brought aboard and made snug on the main cabin deck. The launch proved her mettle to the fullest degree during the two and a-half hours’ battle against big head seas and a howling gale. She rolled decks awash repeatedly and the seas lashed from stem to stern, which she would plunge from billow to billow and frequently have her head pointing heavenward.

The severity of the sea smashing on the hull tore the metal sheathing from the under-bow. The trip was completed at Mr Thos. Welsby’s waterside residence at New Farm, after a four-hours journey from Bribie and the patient was conveyed by ambulance to Holyrood private hospital, where, despite all the efforts to save his life, he died.

NOTES
(1) Stephen Clark (1850-1928), a master mariner, who lived at White Patch in his latter years. He was the elder brother of James Clark (1857-1933) of "pearl shell fame" as mentioned above.

(2) James Crouch (1879-1966) and his sons Bert (b. 1902) and Cecil (b. 1906).

REFERENCE
Sailing. A Hazardous Trip. The Storm Flayed Bay. By "Seabreeze". 
The Telegraph Fri 27 Apr 1928, p. 2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article179328000

Image - Pile Light in Moreton Bay, ca 1909.
State Library of Queensland, negative 39669