North Stradbroke Island Timeine

  • James Cook

    Lieutenant James Cook charted the outside of Moreton Bay and named several features, including Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island.
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    North Stradbroke Timline

  • Matthew 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.
  • Shipwreck

    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.
  • Renaming

    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.
  • Industrial Revolution

    A cotton plantation was established at Moongalba (Myora). It was abandoned not long after.
  • January 1831 - December 1832: Violent Altercations

    10 or more violent clashes occurred between Stradbroke Island Aborigines and Europeans stationed at Dunwich and Amity.
  • 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.
  • Quarantine Station Closed

    The Dunwich quarantine station closed but the site continued to be used for the next decade as the need arose.
  • Asylumn Opening

    The Dunwich Benevolent Asylum was set up to house Moreton Bay’s elderly and homeless was opened
  • Billy North

    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.
  • Oyster Industries

    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.
  • Prosperity Shipwreck

    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.
  • Tourism

    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.
  • Point Lookout's Lighthouse

    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.
  • Moongalba/Myoora Mission

    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.
  • Point Lookout Surf Live Saving Club

    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 replaced by the club’s first permanent
    clubhouse in 1950.
  • Zinc Corps

    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.
  • Titanium Zircon Industries

    Consolidated Rutile began mining operations. Until then Titanium Zircon Industries (TAZI) was the Island’s major employer.
  • Barge Lookout

    Barge Lookout began operating from Cleveland and Stradbroke Ferries began operating firstly the Myora and then the Moongoolba.