I received this email and thought how lovely it was, so here are the writer’s thoughts behind the poem…

Here is a poem I wrote recently after a walk along the Woorim foreshore to where my parents' ashes are scattered in the dunes. They were longtime residents of Woorim having purchased a block when the first Government real estate development opened in the early 60's, becoming permanent residents when they built their retirement home here in 1971.

My father (Neville Fitzgerald) used to walk the Woorim beach towards Skirmish Point every day of the year, having a quick swim at the end of his walk (summer and winter). He passed away in 2008 aged 92 years. He was Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (Qld) when he retired. My mother (Lilas Fitzgerald) worked as a volunteer for Meals on Wheels on Bribie for many years here also, before passing away in 2002, aged 84 years. They spent more than 60 years together, with more than half that period as residents of Bribie.

The family have been coming to Bribie for five generations. The various attached pictures are of myself and other generations of Fitzgerald’s, some on the beaches here, 70 years ago, and in Caloundra up to 100 years ago

I have also attached a picture of Caloundra in 1923 that may not have seen the light of day much since first taken. My grandparents built one of the first five houses in Caloundra and it is pictured in a central position in the attached snap. My grandfather, Joseph Fitzgerald, first constructed the house in Brisbane then took it apart numbering each piece and had it transported by bullock wagon to Caloundra. There he rebuilt it as a wedding gift for his bride Sarah Walden. They owned five acres in the near vicinity of the lighthouse. We used to holiday there as children.Many of the Fitzgerald’s were regular visitors to Bribie, from the days of the SS Koopa, ventures across on the car ferry ... to today's fifth generation (depicted).

Having children of Aboriginal descent myself, I am very conscious of the displacement and passing of the original Aboriginal inhabitants of Bribie Island ('Yarun') since European settlement; the poem is a small attempt to reflect upon this and what the future might hold for our own occupation of this land (in the very long term).