HISTORY
LONG HISTORY OF JULY
By Barry Clark Bribie Island Historical Society
1 6 THIS ARTICLE WILL BE PRINTED ABOUT 16 JULY WHICH IS A SIGNIFICANT DATE FOR BRIBIE ISLAND.
FAR OUT TO SEA.
I will look back at a few July events over the years, to show how much our world has changed, from first footsteps in the sand of Bribie, to first footsteps on the Moon.
In July 1769, James Cook observed the Transit of Venus in Tahiti, and went on to discover and claim this new coastline in 1770. He named The Glass Houses and Cape Morton (without the E which was a later error), but he did not see big Moreton Bay or any islands. In July 1770, Cook and his crew were desperately repairing damage to the Endeavour after having run aground on the Great Barrier Reef. They we were very fortunate to fix the hole in the ship, and
Climate Change is a topical issue, but global warming and cooling has been going on for millions of years, At the end of the last Ice Age, possibly on a July day 18,000 years ago, when the coastline was far away from here, the sea level started rising. Over the next 12,000 years, the sea rose more than 125 metres, and Archaeological evidence reveals that indigenous people adapted to climate change, living on the land that is now the bottom of Moreton Bay, when the coastline was 50 klms. east of what is now Bribie Island. The sea level went down a bit, and the coastline has been this way for about 1000 years, with Bribie being an Island for just a few hundred years. 42 www.thebribieislander.com.au
The Bribie Islander
find a way out of the reef, to successfully return home to England with 44 of the original crew of 100, who survived the three year journey of discovery. Cook spent 20 years of his life, charting oceans and coastal features all around the world. Eleven years on three journeys of explorations aboard Endeavour and Resolution, sailing the Pacific Ocean, searching for a Great South Land and a North West Passage, before his death in an incident with the natives of Hawaii in 1779, at 50 years of age. James Cook and Resolution
