Stradbroke Island Timeline

By sspilar

  • James Cook

    Sailed outside of Moreton Bay and named several landmarks.

  • Minjerribah

    Matthew Flinders was helped by a group of Minjerribah people.

  • Pamphlett, Finnegan, Parsons

    After they were shipwrecked on Moreton Island and looked after by the Noonucals.

  • John Oxely

    Surveyor General John Oxley, botanist Allan Cunningham and surveyor Robert Hoddle visited Pulan and called it Cypress Point. It is now known as Amity Point after their ship.

  • JH Rous

    Minjerribah was renamed Stradbroke Island by Governor Darling in honour of the captain JH Rous.

  • Cotton Plantation

    A cotton pantation was established at Moongalba.

  • Dunwich and Amity Violence

    10 or more violent clashes occurred between Stradbroke Island Aborigines and Europeans stationed at Dunwich and Amity. They went from January 1831 to December 1832.

  • The Sovereign

    In March the Sovereign sank in South Passage between Moreton and North Stradbroke Island, which was still the most used entry to Moreton Bay. A group of Moreton Island and Stradbroke Island Aborigines rescued 10 of the passengers and were rewarded for their efforts.

  • Emigrant

    On 16 July Dunwich was named 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 and 56 of the passengers died.

  • Quarantine Station Closed

    The Dunwich quarantine station closed but the site continued to be used for the next decade as required.

  • Dunwich Benevolent Asylum

    The Dunwich Benevolent Asylum was set up to house Moreton Bay’s elderly and homeless. It occupied the former quarantine station buildings.

  • Cambus Wallace

    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 the strip and from this time on, North and South Stradbroke have been two separate islands. It is believed that the breakthrough was hastened by earlier efforts to salvage the cargo. In particular, the ship’s cargo of explosives had been blown up, creating huge holes in the sand dunes.

  • Marie Christensen

    Matron Marie Christensen at the Myora Mission was charged with murder, later reduced to manslaughter, of 5-year-old Cassy. The death occurred after the Matron flogged the girl for swimming with the boys.

  • Oyster Fisheries

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Point Lookout 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.

  • Rufus King

    The American liberty ship Rufus King ran aground on the South Passage bar. The ship was wrecked but no lives were lost. The ship was carrying supplies for field hospitals from Los Angeles to Brisbane.

  • Moongalba/Myora Mission Closed

    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.

  • Amazon - Karboora

    A vehicular ferry service started, using the Amazon, renamed the Karboora. It landed on the beach just north of the Dunwich causeway.

  • Zinc Corp

    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.

  • Mining

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

  • Barge Lookout and Stradbroke Ferries

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

  • Quandamooka Native Title Process Agreement

    A native title ‘process’ agreement between the Quandamooka Land Council and Redland Shire Council over island land claims was signed. The land claim was over North Stradbroke Island, the Bay Islands and surrounding waters in 1994.