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In the early 1700 to 1800’s, the area of Moreton Bay encompassed many islands. These islands were known collectively as Quandamooka – or Islands in the Bay.
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He was here for Sovereign, charting the outer reaches of Moreton Bay and naming several prominent features of the Island.
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He came ashore in search of fresh water.
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They showed the three men who were shipwrecked the land and helped them to leave.
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They were shipwrecked, on Moreton Island and spent eight months exploring around Moreton Bay. The Noonucals showed the three men how to make a canoe from the local timber and it was in this vessel that they departed six weeks later. Things; Emigrant
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He went on the exploratory mission with fellow surveyor John Oxely and Allan Cunnigham.
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He was on the exploratory mission with fellow surveyor Robert Hoddle and John Oxely. He was a botanist.
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Surveyor, he arrived in Pulan and named it Cypress Point whilst on an exploratory mission.
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Minjerribah was renamed Stradbroke Island by Governor Darling in reverence of the Honourable Captain J.H. Rous, son of the Earl of Stradbroke and also Viscount Dunwich. Rous was the Captain of the HMS Rainbow, which was the first ship of war to enter Moreton Bay.
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Not all relations were soured however and when the “Sovereign” sank in the South Passage in 1847, considerable recognition was granted to the Minjerribah people and the Ngugi people of Moreton Island for their valiant efforts to rescue the stricken crew. They were rewarded with a boat and breastplates in gratitude for their assistance. It was in this year that all the Ngugi people moved to Minjerribah, leaving Moreton Island permanently.
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On July 16 1850, Dunwich was proclaimed to be Moreton Bay’s Quarantine Station. Only a few weeks later a ship called the “Emigrant” pulled into port with Typhus onboard. All of her passengers were put into quarantine at Dunwich. Fifty six of them died and many are buried in the Dunwich cemetery. The quarantine station closed in 1864 and Peel Island was declared as Moreton Bay’s official quarantine station, and Dunwich was nominated to accommodate the Benevolent Asylum which was completed in 1867
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In 1892 well known historian Thomas Welsby set up a dugong boiling down plant near Myora to extract the dugong oil used in lamps, for cooking, and in medicine.
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Prior to 1894 were one and the same island. The two islands were separated after a barque; the "Cambus Wallace" was shipwrecked in a narrow passage off the island that was carrying explosives that had to be detonated in the passage. It is believed that the recovery of cargo from the Cambus Wallace, the detonations, and a severe storm caused the separation of the island creating North and South Stradbroke as we know it today.
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Murder came calling in September of 1896, at the hands of Matron Marie Christensen at the Myora Mission. She was charged with murder, later reduced to manslaughter for killing five year old Cassy whom she beat to death for swimming with the boys.
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By 1901 oyster farming was well established on the Island, but a plague of mud worm wreaked havoc on this enterprise. Oyster farming had been the biggest seafood industry in Queensland at that time, employing many Aboriginal and European workers for years. The outbreak of mud worm was devastating but not terminal, and through perseverance the industry survived and still prospers in Moreton Bay.
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1902 saw the sinking of the “Prosperity” off Point Lookout, it is believed that a skeleton revealed on the beach in 1956 with a boot still intact on the foot, was the remains of the cook from the “Prosperity”. The discovery of these remains was the origin of the name given to the beach on which they were found – Deadman’s Beach at Point Lookout.
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Tourism came to the Island much later, when in the 1930’s, Bert Clayton bought land above the South Gorge to build a guesthouse.
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The Point Lookout Lighthouse was constructed in 1932
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In spite of the new lighthouse, the “Rufus King” ran aground in the South Passage Bar in 1942. It was a supply ship loaded with cargo from Los Angeles bringing supplies to Brisbane and field hospitals. The Islanders benefited greatly from the flotsam in the Bay including tins of coffee, barrels of fuel, bags of cotton sheets and even turkeys brought onboard to feed the American crew for Thanksgiving.
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On the 14th of May 1943, the Australian Hospital Ship “Centaur” was torpedoed off the Island and 268 of its passengers were killed, leaving only 64 survivors.
