JULY 16BRIBIE ANNIVERSARY 1799

You will be reading this about July 16 which was a memorable date for the Joondooburri people of this island they called Yarun, when the first explorers landed here 224 years ago in 1799. Some elders may have remembered or heard stories of seeing a much bigger sailing ship 29 years earlier, when James Cook sailed past this coast in May 1770. He was aboard the Endeavour, a long way out to sea and far from the island when he named Morton Bay and the Glasshouses as he sailed north.

The Yarun islanders saw the sloop Norfolk on July 16th1799 with a small crew led by Matthew Flinders and his Aboriginal friend and guide Bongaree.

It was just 11 years after the first fleet had landed in Sydney harbour in 1788 to establish a new Penal Colony. Little was known of this vast unexplored land and it was thought that big rivers must flow from a vast inland sea. The 25-year-old Matthew Flinders was sent north to explore Glasshouse Bay, which Cook had sited 29 years earlier, to look for possible inland rivers.

On July 16th, 1799, Flinders made the first white footprint in the sand of Bribie Island, on the beach near the site of today’s Seaside Museum, where a commemorative stone and plaque now stand.

MATTHEW FLINDERS ENTERED GLASSHOUSE BAY (now Moreton Bay) IN H.M. SLOOP NORFOLK AND EXPLORED THE BAY AND ITS ENVIRONS IN JULY 1799.

POINT SKIRMISH WAS THE NAME FLINDERS GAVE TO THE LOW SANDY POINT ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE INLET TO THE PUMICESTONE RIVER (Pumicestone Passage) WHERE FLINDERS AND HIS CREW HAD A MINOR SKIRMISH WITH THE LOCAL ABORIGINALS.

Flinders sailed around Moreton Bay for several days and charted the islands but failed to find the Brisbane River. He returned to White Patch and beached the Norfolk for repairs and went up what he named the Pumicestone River and climbed a Glasshouse Mountain. Flinders did not know that he had landed on an Island, and nobody at that stage even knew that Australia was a huge island continent.

The Explorers

Flinders had come to Australia, aged 21 in 1795, and sailed around Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) in a small boat with George Bass. Flinders was a great explorer and navigator and in 1803 was the first to sail right around the lands previously known as New Holland and New South Wales by earlier explorers.

Flinders was the first to identify it as an island Continent, which he named AUSTRALIA which was later adopted as the official name for the entire continent. Flinders took his good friend Bongaree on all his explorations, together with their pet cat TRIM.

War with France, and was taken prisoner and held for 7 years. Finally getting home in 1810 in failing health, he struggled to finish his book “Voyage to Terra Australis”, which was finally published a day before his death on 19 July 1814 at age 40.

Flinders Grave

The long-lost records of his 1814 burial were found 206 years later when rebuilding work started on Euston Railway Station in London in 2019. In a mass grave site, where 60,000 largely unidentified bodies had been buried, records revealed a possible site of Flinders's grave. Like finding a needle in a haystack on a huge archaeologic site, the coffin plate and remains of Matthew Flinders were unearthed in 2020. It was a remarkable find for historians and archaeologists, and further research may reveal new aspects of his life and death.

no memorial to his good friend and companion Bongaree, after whom the settlement on Bribie Island was named in 1912.

Flinders Memorials

Later, when Flinders sailed back to England he stopped at the island of Mauritius, not knowing that England was a

There are several memorials all around the world paying tribute to the life of Matthew Flinders. On Bribie, we have a Talking Monument at Banksia Beach, and the Arts Centre has a Matthew Flinders Gallery. Several books have been written about Flinders, places and plants bear his name, and a bronze memorial to the well-travelled cat Trim is outside the NSW State Library. There is however

Bongaree Tribute

The Bribie Island Historical Society propose gifting a life-size sculpture of Flinders, Bongaree and Trim to be erected near the site where they first landed on July 16, 1799.

It would be the first such figure of Bongaree anywhere in the world and a long overdue recognition of the significant role he played in the circumnavigation of Australia, and the place named Bongaree in his honour.

Why has it taken so long?

The Historical Society has offered to donate a life-size sculpture of Flinders, Bongaree and Trim to be erected near the historic Bribie Island landing site and is waiting for Council approval.

I wrote this article for July 16, to commemorate two July dates in the life and death of Matthew Flinders. Their first landing on Bribie Island on 16 July 1799 at age 25, and his death on 19 July 1814 at age 40.w

More Bribie History

The Historical Society meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 6;30 pm at the RSL Club and visitors are always welcome. More stories and photos of Bribie on our Web Site Bribiehistoricalsociety.org.au and Blog Site http://bribieislandhistory.blogspot. com if you have a question contact us on bribiehistoricalsociety@gmail.com

Crosswords - QUICK & CRYPTIC

Across

5 Curative (11)

7 Little devils (4)

8 Priest’s service book (8)

9 Tardy (7)

11 Aquamarine or emeralds, for instance (5)

13 Liquid once used to produce anaesthetic vapour (5)

14 Machine operator? (7)

16 Persist (8)

17 Camouflaged shelter from which to observe wildlife (4)

18 Cocktail of vodka and orange juice (11)

Cyrus

Across

1 Haggard German lady only half taught (7)

5 Board members who might be checked (5)

8 Craft carrying less weight? (7)

9 Later we see something of a redraft error, obviously (5)

10 Mythical river is a short way to some unknowns (4)

11 Nothing in the Vatican presupposes taking time off (8)

14 It takes precedence at the start of the column (6)

16 Take part in swimming lessons (6)

18 Suggested little blighter be approved (8)

19 Encourages products for sitters (4)

23 The rise of Captain's leading member (5)

25 Five, in the centre of supporting a party, audacity? (7)

26 A little bird the French gave to his majesty, perhaps (5)

27 Once a wife had much to offer as a role model.. (7)

Solutions

Down

1 Sediment in drink (4)

2 Blackcap or chiffchaff, say (7)

3 Jarman or Jacobi? (5)

4 Grating (8)

5 Seems put out (anag) — furious (11)

6 Mix of ground hot spices (5,6)

10 Narrow opening (8)

12 Devoid of moisture (4,3)

15 Understood (5)

17 A place that’s abuzz? (4)

CYRUS SOLUTION 195

QUICK SOLUTION 195

Down

1 Completes - The French son taking second place (5)

2 Furious at seeing horse injured on the railway (5)

3 Get a new turnstile for the takings (4)

4 Mad Hatter became a menace (6)

5 Some mistake albatross for a parrot (3)

6 Making a profit from curtain material? (7)

7 Remarkable agents right in the mix (7)

12 Tart sends one on a trip.. (4)

13 Himalayan hunk? Still one to identify (4)

14 A reduction of one's overheads? (7)

15 Authorise software on it freely (7)

17 The little attention some fishermen get (6)

20 Hold both ends of garter snake (5)

21 Pinched a wrap (5)

22 The French visit Virginia after an eruption (4)

24 A brief farewell and he didn't hit but it counts (3)