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Stradbroke Island, also known as Minjerribah, was a large sand island that formed much of the eastern side of Moreton Bay near Brisbane, Queensland until the late 19th century. Today the island is split into two islands: North Stradbroke Island and South Stradbroke Island, separated by the Jumpinpin Channel.

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Stradbroke Island was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction".^[1]

Indigenous history

Archaeological evidence suggests the Quandamooka, an Aboriginal Australian people, lived on the island for at least 21,000 years prior to European settlement. It was also a traditional meeting place of Quandamooka peoples such as the Nunukul and Goenpul. A 1964 survey found 121 pre-European dwelling sites with evidence of substantial wooden huts.^[2]

Jandai (also known as Janday, Jandewal, Djendewal, Jundai, Goenpul and Jandawal) is one of the Aboriginal languages spoken on Stradbroke Island.^[3]

European settlement

There are persistent stories of a 17th-century Spanish shipwreck known locally as the Stradbroke Island Galleon. There exists a body of Aboriginal oral history that may bear on some such incident, and several artefacts have been found in the sand dunes, including an English silver coin from 1597 and the blade of a 17th-century Spanish rapier. The evidence however is not conclusive.^[4]

Captain James Cook made the first documented European sighting of the island in 1770 and named Point Lookout, but did not land. The first historically documented contact between Europeans and the local Aborigines was 1803 when Matthew Flinders landed in search of fresh water.^[5] The next documented contact was between shipwreck survivors Thomas Pamphlett, Richard Parsons and John Finnegan landed on Moreton Island in April 1823, before being taken to Stradbroke Island by the natives where they were helped and provided with food, shelter and a canoe by the local Aborigines.

Initial white settlement of Stradbroke Island was at Amity Point where a pilot station was established in 1825. More fertile soil, good sources of fresh water and a better harbour was found at the present location of Dunwich so settlement soon concentrated there. Dunwich became a staging point where larger ships were unloaded of cargo which was placed into smaller vessels to be carried over the sand bars of Brisbane River and up to the penal settlement of Brisbane. The Dunwich settlement was in close proximity to a major Aboriginal camp at Myora Spring. Whites and Europeans generally lived in reasonable harmony though there were moments of conflict as would be expected within the context of two very different cultures meeting for the first time.

Early efforts to establish agriculture on the island, especially plans to grow cotton north of Dunwich, resulted in conflicts with the local Aboriginal people, the Ngugi tribe of the Quandamooka people. In March 1830, the 57th regiment seeking reprisals for the murder of a guard, attacked a group of Ngugi people near a lagoon on Moreton Island. This was likely the first significant massacre of indigenous people in the region.^[6]

In 1843 the first Catholic mission for Aboriginal people was established on Stradbroke Island by Archbishop Polding, a Passionist priest, who visited and chose the site. It was unsuccessful because of poor relations with the local tribes and lack of resources, and the missionaries withdrew in 1847.^[7]^[8]

A quarantine station was established at the northern end of the island in July 1850.^[9] This was due to its proximity to the shipping route, its isolation and to there being a supply of fresh water available.

On 2 February 1887 the barque Scottish Prince ran aground on the southern end of Stradbroke Island. Three tug boats were dispatched to try to pull the vessel free, but this did not succeed. All of the passengers and crew were rescued but the cargo was remained onboard until the ship broke apart and its goods were washed ashore.^[10] Parts of the wreck can still be found in shallow water approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) offshore south of the Southport Spit and it is a popular diving site.^[11] Since 2013, sand movement has resulted in increasing amounts of the wreck becoming visible.^[12]

Myora Mission, initially run by the Queensland Aboriginal Protection Association from 1892 and from 1896 by the Queensland Government as an Aboriginal reserve and "industrial and reform school", was used as a source of cheap labour, and eventually closed in 1943.^[13]^[14]^[15]

Island division

In September 1894, heavy seas drove aground the barque Cambus Wallace at a narrow isthmus roughly halfway down the island's length. Salvage activity (including the detonation of a cargo of explosives) weakened the sand dunes along the spit such that by the spring of 1896, storms and tides had washed a permanent breach from Moreton Bay to the Coral Sea.^[16]

The island is now two islands separated by the Jumpinpin Channel:

North Stradbroke Island is the larger of the two, about 38 km long and up to 11 km wide.
South Stradbroke Island is about 22 km long and at most 2 km wide.

North Stradbroke is the more developed of the two islands, with the three small townships of Dunwich, Amity Point and Point Lookout offering vacation rentals, shops and a range of eateries. It also has a sealed, bitumen road network.

South Stradbroke, while less developed, has a number of anchorages, campsites, and two major tourist resorts, Couran Cove and South Stradbroke Island Resort, or Tipplers. There are almost no sealed roads on the island.

In popular culture

The 2015 novel Ghost Galleon by Errol Bishop is based on the legend of the Stradbroke Island Galleon. Bishop became aware of the legend while the principal of Macleay Island State School in Moreton Bay.^[17]^[18]

References

^ Bligh, Anna (10 June 2009). "PREMIER UNVEILS QUEENSLAND'S 150 ICONS". Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 24 May 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
^ V.V. Ponosov (1964). Results of an archaeological survey of the Southern Region of Moreton Bay and of Moreton Island. University of Queensland.
^ "Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages map". State Library of Queensland. 2020. Archived from the original on 5 September 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
^ Greg Jefferys (2007). The Stradbroke Island Galleon: The Mystery of the Ship in the Swamp. J.A.G. Publications. ISBN 978-0980357004.
^ Tom Petrie's Reminiscences of Early Queensland. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 1992. p. 69. ISBN 0702223832.
^ Evans, Raymond (2007). A History of Queensland. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-521-87692-6.
^ J. Franklin, Catholic missions to Aboriginal Australia: an evaluation of their overall effect Archived 1 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 37 (1) (2016), 45-68; O. Thorpe, First Catholic Mission to the Australian Aborigines (Pellegrini, Sydney, 1950); R. Ganter, The Stradbroke Island Mission (1843–1847) Archived 20 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Coghill, Shane (December 2011). The Secret Life of an Aborigine: Memoirs of Shane Coghill, Goenpul Man: Quandamooka Stories as Heritage (PDF) (Thesis). Griffith University. pp. 33–34. S2CID 165698276. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020. Submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy to the School of Humanities, Arts, Education and Law Group, December, 2010
^ Hogan, Janet (1982). Living History of Brisbane. Spring Hill, Queensland: Boolarang Publications. p. 26. ISBN 0-908175-41-8.
^ "The Stranding of the Scottish Prince". The Queenslander. Queensland, Australia. 12 February 1887. p. 258. Archived from the original on 5 August 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2019 – via Trove.
^ "The Scottish Prince". Gold Coast City Libraries. 30 March 2016. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
^ Forbes, Tom (17 December 2019). "Divers flock to famous shipwreck as shifting sands reveal buried secrets". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
^ F. Walker, Useful and profitable: history and race relations at the Myora Aboriginal Mission, Stradbroke Island, Australia, 1892-1940 Archived 2 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Memoirs of the Queensland Museum: Cultural Heritage Series 1 (1) (1998), 137-175.
^ Walker, Faith (20 April 1998). "Useful and Profitable: History and race relations at the Myora Aboriginal Mission, Stradbroke Island, Australia, 1892-1940". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Cultural Heritage Series. 1 (1). Brisbane: 137–175. ISSN 1440-4788. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
^ Anderson, Robert V. (2001). "History, Life And Times of Robert Anderson: Gheebelum, Ngugi, Mulgumpin". doczz.net. Uniikup Productions. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020. Community and personal history of a Ngugi Elder of Mulgumpin in Quandamooka, South East Queensland, Australia.
^ "Stradbroke Island". Gold Coast City Council. 2 September 2009. Archived from the original on 9 October 2009. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
^ Harris, Meghan (30 September 2015). "Ghost shipwreck legend makes for interesting book". Toowoomba Chronicle. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
^ Kerr, Judith (22 September 2015). "Ghost galleon". Redland City Bulletin. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2017.