HISTORY
By Barry Clark Bribie Island Historical Society
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From COLONY to STATE to ISLAND BIRTH
fter 15 years as Moreton Bay Penal Colony, and 20 years of free settlement, a new Colony of Queensland was separated from the colony of NSW in 1859. The capital Brisbane, named for the Governor of NSW at the time, was first known as EDINGLASSIE, a combination of Edinburgh and Glasgow, where many migrants had come from. Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent in 1859 to form the selfgoverning Colony of Queensland with George Bowen as Governor, and was the only colony that started with its own Parliament. Brisbane was connected to Sydney by electric Telegraph in 1861, but the new colony struggled to survive in the early years, prior to discovery of Gold on Mary River in 1867.
BIRTH OF BRIBIE
Bribie Island became an attraction after the Brisbane Tug Co. leased land, built a Jetty, and ran Steamships from Brisbane via Redcliffe from 1912. The first car brought to Bribie in 1919, involved a 2-day trip on beach and bush tracks from Brisbane to Godwin Beach, and then floated over to Bribie. There was no road on Bribie until 12 years later in 1924 when a track was cleared from Bongaree to Ocean Beach. The speed limit in Caboolture Shire then was 8 miles per hour.
QUEENSLAND FIRSTS
Queensland printed one-penny Stamps in 1860, now very rare and worth $10,000. The first Queensland Flag design had the head of Queen Victoria, but was difficult to reproduce on a Flag, so the official Queensland flag unfurled in 1876 had a Maltese/ Victoria Cross insert.
BRIBIE 1919
Caboolture began on the banks of the river, on the road to the Gympie Gold Fields in 1867, and pioneer settlers took up land around Pumicestone Passage. Pioneers on Bribie Island around 1890 grazed cattle, kept Bees, dredged Oysters and caught Fish. The last aboriginal of Bribie Island died in 1897, and buried in the middle of what is now the divided section of Bribie Island Road.
COLONY to STATE
The Commonwealth of Australia was established in 1901, and Queensland and other Australian colonies changed from a Colony to a State. Queensland had the lowest voter endorsement of any of the six States at just 55%, being the second largest State of Australia, 7 times the size of UK, and two and a half times the size of Texas. Queensland was the first State to introduce compulsory voting in 1914, and the only State of Australia to have just one “Lower” house of its Parliament from1922. Four Queenslanders have been Prime Minister (Fisher, Fadden, Forde and Rudd) and Dame Quentin Bryce was the first female Governor General. 44 www.thebribieislander.com.au
The Bribie Islander
The resident population of Bribie in 1919 was less than 30 people, but thousands of visitors and holidaymakers came by Steamship to enjoy the simple pleasures of the island, with the few residents provided basic services. The year 1919 was significant for Brisbane, when troops returned from WW1 badly injured and traumatised, and the global pandemic “Spanish Flu” swept the world killing more than 50 million people. Spanish Flu killed over 300 people in Brisbane when there was little understanding of what a Virus actually was, or how to deal with it. Among the few resident of Bribie in 1919 were Charles and Florence Newton. He was an Oysterman in Pumicestone Passage, and they had a small kiosk at Ocean beach. They already had three young sons, and on 26th July 1919 a baby girl, Florence May Newton was born.
