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Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
North Stradbroke Island
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Lieutenant James Cook
Lieutenant James Cook charted the outside of Moreton Bay and named several features, including Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island. -
Mathew Flinders' Crew
A group of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island
) people helped Matthew Flinders’ crew find water when they came ashore near Cylinder Beach on their way back to Sydney. This was possibly the first black-white contact on the Island. -
Moreton Bay
Timbergetters Pamphlett, Finnegan and Parsons were shipwrecked on Moreton Island and spent the next eight months travelling around Moreton Bay. The Noonucals at Pulan (Amity Point) looked after them for nearly six weeks. They housed, fed and advised the trio on canoe making, and saw them off some months later in the craft they’d made on the island. During their time on Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), the three experienced bora gatherings, and ceremonial,celebratory and gladatorial events. -
Noonuccal
In June Minjerribah was renamed Stradbroke Island by Governor Darling in honor of the Honourable Captain JH Rous, son of the Earl of Stradbroke and also Viscount Dunwich. Rous was commander of HMS Rainbow, the first ship of war to enter Moreton Bay. Darling also named Dunwich, Rainbow Reach and Rous’ Channel. Commandant Patrick Logan selected Dunwich as a possible site for the Moreton Bay settlement following concerns about Brisbane’s suitability due to obstructions on Brisbane River. Dunwich wa -
Plantation
A cotton plantatio was established at Moongalba (Myora). It was abandoned not long after. -
Violence
January 1831-December 1832: 10 or more violent clashes occurred between Stradbroke island Aborigines and Europeans stationed at Dunwwich and Amity. -
Missionaries
Four Passionist missionaries set up a mission at Dunwich to convert Aborigines. Itbroke up in 1846.The last priest, Raymund Vaccari, left on 20 July 1847. -
Quarantine
On 16 July Dunwich was proclaimed Moreton Bay’s quarantine station. Only weeks later, the immigrant ship
Emigrant arrived with typhus on board. The passengers were put into quarantine at Dunwich. In all, 56 people died. Many are buried in the Dunwich cemetery. -
Closing Time
The Dunwich quarantine station closed but the site continued to be used for the next decade as the need arose. -
Lookout For Cambus Wallace
Billy North was granted a lease over Point Lookout. For nearly 40 years, he ran cattle, at one stage supplying beef to the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum. He also operated a fish cannery at Two Mile outside Dunwich. The quality of his canned fish was recognised by a medal from the National Agricultural and Industrial Association in 1908.A barque, the Cambus Wallace, was wrecked on the ocean side of a very narrow part of Stradbroke Island. Two years later, a southerly gale led to the breakthrough of t -
Oysters
By this time, Moreton Bay’s oyster fisheries were slowly being destroyed by an outbreak of mud worm. Oystering had been the biggest seafood industry in southern Qld for years, employing hundreds of Aboriginal and non-aboriginal people over decades. Many oystermen lived in rough camps on the Bay Islands and Stradbroke. Dwellings comprised simple shacks made of bark and slab, with two-room cottages built as incomes improved. -
The Prosperity
The Prosperity sank off Point Lookout on its way from Sydney with sugar Machinery for Mourilyan Harbour in North Queensland. Five survivors were cared for at Point Lookout before returning home. In 1956 a skeleton and boot were uncovered in the sand on Deadman’s Beach, and it is believed they were the remains of the Prosperity’s mate or cook.This is the origin of the name. -
Bert Clayton
Point Lookout’s first tourism venture started in the 1930s when Bert Clayton
bought land above South Gorge to establish a guest house. The first guests were accommodated in tents which were slowly replaced by one-room cabins. He sold up in 1946 and the new owners, the Bulcocks, renamed the complex Samarinda. -
Let Their Be Light
The Point Lookout lighthouse was built. Materials for its construction were landed on a Point Lookout beach, and the cylinders for the light were constructed on the beach and carried up to the site. As a result the beach became known as Cylinder Beach. -
Centaur and Missions
The Australian hospital ship Centaur was torpedoed off Stradbroke Island on 14 May 1943. A total of 268 lives were lost and only 64 people survived.
The Moongalba/Myora mission was closed. Most residents moved to One Mile where the Moongalba buildings were re-erected. The Moongalba families weren’t allowed to live in Dunwich. -
Developments
A vehicular ferry service started, using the Amazon, renamed the
Karboora. It landed on the beach just north of the Dunwich causeway. The former benevolent asylum land at Dunwich was subdivided and offered on perpetual leases in a State Government bid to develop Dunwich as a tourist resort. The first life-saving patrols started at Point Lookout. The following year the Point Lookout club became affiliated with the Queensland Surf Life Saving Association. The army tent used in the early days was -
Sand Mining
Zinc Corp began sand mining on Stradbroke Island. The first shipment left the Island in 1950. The sand was shovelled by hand from Main Beach and trucked to Dunwich.The mining partly solved the unemployment problems on the Island. -
More Sand and Hospitals
Consolidated Rutile began mining operations. Until then Titanium Zircon Industries (TAZI) was the Island’s major employer. The four-bed Dunwich Hospital was opened on 17 November. -
Barges
Barge Lookout began operating from Cleveland and Stradbroke Ferries began firstly the Myora and then the Moongoolba.