HISTORY
BOLD BARE & ,,
BRIDGE IDEAS IDEAS ININ 1957 BRIDGE
By Barry Clark Bribie Island Historical Society
NEWSCLIPS FROM 1950’s
This week I have been looking at a personal Scrapbook of 1950’s Newspaper headline cuttings, with interesting happening on Bribie in the years before the bridge. Newspaper headlines that put Bribie in the national spotlight are about NUDIST INVASION, big fish catches, land sales and rising prices, a master plan for the island, terrible road access, political delays for Bribie bridge, proposals by developers, ideas about a second bridge, and finally the building of a toll bridge. Apart from an invasion of
Nudists, and catching big Fish, news headlines from 1957 to 1964 are similar to some issues today. I will summarise events over those years, as they appeared in newspapers at the time.
LAND ON BRIBIE 1952
In 1952, Mort and Alma Allen, from Camp Hill in Brisbane,
16 Shillings (about $7) on a perpetual lease. They built a small holiday cottage and converted it to Freehold for 100 pounds in 1959. Over the next 20 years, they had regular holidays on Bribie with their three sons and pet Parrot. They did various extensions and renovations to the cottage, before retiring to live full time
bought a block of Crown land in Bonham Street, Bongaree, sight unseen, for 3 Pound on Bribie in 1976. They kept a written record of everything they did and spent on the house and a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings of interest. This fascinating Scrapbook has recently come to light.
SCRAPBOOK 1957 -1964 Mort & Alma cut articles from Brisbane and Bribie 38 www.thebribieislander.com.au
The Bribie Islander
newspapers and stuck them in a School Exercise book. The scrapbook was found in the house after it was sold recently. It reveals Bribie development issues that dominated the lives of the few hundred residents at that time. The threat of a nudist colony is the first item in the scrapbook in 1957, and would certainly have shocked the small Bribie community in that era of “Beatniks and Free Love”. Mort & Alma were keen
