Stradbroke Island

Location:The two islands, North and South Stradbroke Island shelter the mainland and the adjacent islands of Moreton Bay from the full force of the Pacific Ocean.  North Stradbroke Island is situated in the local authority of Redland Shire; 

The Gold Coast: South Stradbroke Island is situated in the local authority of Gold Coast City. Before 1896, Stradbroke was one island.

Geological History: During an Ice Age, 120,000 years ago, the mainland coast was located much farther west than it is today, with the sea lapping the foothills of the Darlington Range; the coastal floodplain of the future Gold Coast, forming part of a large shallow seabed. To the north, sand blown and washed up from  southern rivers formed a  large sand mass around an outcrop of bedrock (Point Lookout).

Farther south, a series of sand spits and beach ridges  consolidated and stretched into a curved line from the mouth of the Nerang River to just south of the Logan River. In the last 6,000 years, this southern sand  island linked up with the larger northern sand mass to form Stradbroke Island.

Nineteenth century Government survey maps mark  the narrow isthmus which formed the one island by its aboriginal name Tuleen.  According to Moreton Bay yachtsman Joshua Bell, Oumpinpin or Jumpinpin, the root of the pandanus tree was harvested there. In 1896, the sea broke through at Tuleen forming the Jumpinpin Bar and South and North Stradbroke Islands. 

Aboriginal History: There are archaelogical remains of human occupation at a site on North Stradbroke Island which dates back to the Pleistocene Age (between 10,000 to 21,000 years ago).The area formed part of the mainland at the time.  Aboriginal people have occupied Stradbroke Island and the some of the Bay Islands from at least the last 6,000 years.  These family groups include the Noonuccal and Goenpul from the northen end of Stradbroke Island; visitors or families originally from the mainland including the Yugarabul from the Brisbane River region, the Yugambeh people (the Gugingin, Bullongin, Kombumerri from the Logan, Coomera and Nerang Regions.

Since the people moved from one food source to another and were linked by family and ceremonial bonds, it was natural that there often a mix of families in an area. It is likely too, that if a family claimed a favourable place with a good aspect and abundant food, they would continue to use it as their base camp and retreat. In a world with few strict boundaries, this is how they would define their place.

  On the southern end of Stradbroke Island, extended stays would have coincided with the peak or seasonal abundance of a favoured food such as fat oysters, plentiful pippis, a run of  fish - tailor or mullet.

Aboriginal Place Names: There are a number of different aboriginal place names associated with Stradbroke Island. Today, North Stradbroke Island is generally referred to as Minjerriba. Moondarewa (Moonjeribah) 'mosquito' was recorded on plans by a surveyor for a proposed township at the southern end of Stradbroke Island. Currigee is documented by William Hanlon as the 'currajong tree'; Canaipa 'ironbark spear'; Cooran (Couran)as 'ash tree'.

European Exploration: On May 17, 1770, Captain Cook approached land within six miles of Point Lookout on Stradbroke Island. He named  Point Lookout  but assumed that the landmark was part of the mainland. Matthew Flinders was the next recorded  European explorer to enter and survey northern Moreton Bay in 1799.

Flinders  was followed some 24 years later (1823) by Surveyor John Oxley in the Mermaid. Oxley  found that the sandhills extending south from Point Lookout were  not part of a peninsula but an island. As a result of  Oxley's recommendations based on  his  discoveries around the Brisbane River and information provided by castaways, Pamphlett and Finnegan, a shipload of soldiers and convicts arrived at Moreton Bay in 1824. They established their settlement first on the northern edge of of the  Bay at Redcliffe but was soon relocated south to a location  upstream on the Brisbane River. This penal settlement became the future site of Brisbane.

Three years later, in 1827, the first British ship of war, commandered  by Captain the Honourable Henry Rous, entered Moreton Bay to undertake survey work. On board the frigate Rainbow was the chief  administrator of the colony of New South Wales, Governor Darling,  who was on a visit of inspection to the new Moreton Bay convict settlement.

Europeans Name Stradbroke:  As a result of the visit,  Governor Darling ordered in July 1827, that the long sand  island to the south of the main channel into Moreton Bay be  named  "The Isle of Stradbroke" in honour of  the Rainbow's Captain Rous, the second son of the Earl of Stradbroke.

How South Stradbroke was formed: Stradbroke Island was gradually severed in two in the mid 1890s with the breakthrough of the ocean  at  Jumpinpin. It all started with a shipwreck.

In the early morning of the 3rd Septemember, 1894, the barque, Cambus Wallace ran aground in the heavy seas near the narrow isthmus of Tuleen. Some of the crew managed to make it to shore, but five men drowned.

The hatches broke open as the tide rose and tons of cargo washed overboard. The vessel was carrrying  whiskey, beer and cases of explosives consigned to Thomas Brown and Websters, general merchants in Brisbane.

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