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James Cook found Australia
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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.
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Timbergetters Pamphlett, Finnegan and Parsons were shipwrecked on Moreton Island and spent the next eight months travelling around Moreton Bay.
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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.
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A cotton plantation was established at Moongalba (Myora).8
It was abandoned not long after -
10 or more violent clashes occurred between
Stradbroke Island Aborigines and Europeans stationed at Dunwich and Amity. -
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.21 In all, 56 people died. Many are buried in the Dunwich cemetery.
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The Dunwich quarantine station closed but the site continued to be used for the next decade as the need arose.
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The Moreton Bay Oyster Co was established by Thomas McIlwraith and Arthur Palmer. The company owned beds off Stradbroke Island as well as the Bay Islands.
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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. -
By this time, Moreton Bay’s oyster fisheries were slowly being destroyed by an outbreak of mud worm
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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 -
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 -
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.61 -
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.
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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 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.79 The mining partly solved the unemployment problems on the Island. -
The four-bed Dunwich Hospital was opened on 17 November.
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Barge Lookout began operating from Cleveland and Stradbroke Ferries began
operating firstly the Myora and then the Moongoolba.