Victoria Point
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Victoria Point Top to Bottom: Stradbroke Island; Southern Moreton Bay Islands; Victoria Point; Point Halloran, 1987 WARNING: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this document may contain the images and/or names of people who have passed away. Information and images from resources held in Local History Collections, Redland City Council Libraries. Local History website [email protected] or 3829 8311 Contents Quandamooka people ..............................................................................................................................................2 Exploration ...............................................................................................................................................................4 European Settlement................................................................................................................................................5 Local Government ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Twentieth Century ................................................................................................................................................. 12 1910s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 12 1920s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 15 1930s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16 1940s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 20 1949 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 23 1950s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 24 1960s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 28 1970s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 34 1980s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 36 1990s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 38 21st Century ........................................................................................................................................................... 41 Point Halloran with Victoria Point in the distance, 1987 HP6170 1 | P a g e Quandamooka people have lived on and around this area for tens of thousands of years. Geological evidence dates occupation at a minimum of 21,000 years. Local people identify the Noonucal, Gorenpul and Nughi as the traditional owners of the Island and adjoining areas. Food supplies were plentiful. Fishing, hunting and gathering were part of the communal economy, with people collecting food according to their carrying capacity, and food shared according to families’ needs. Dugong as well as fish such as mullet and tailor were caught with nets, sometimes aided by dolphins. Turtle and shellfish were also collected. Oysters, mullet, crabs, cowrie, prawns, cockles, eugarie, mussels and turtle were common foods at different times of the year. Other foods hunted and collected at different times of the year included kangaroo, wallaby, goannas, flying foxes, birds, possum, and bandicoots, native fruits and berries, honey, and drinks made from flowers. Bungwal/dingowa the rhizome of a fern, was pounded into flour, to make a type of damper or bread, and once a year a journey was made to the Bunya Mountains to gather bunya nuts, which could also be used the same way, or eaten roasted or fresh. Grind stones have been dated back more than 30,000 years, making Aboriginal people the world’s first bakers. Corroborees and other ceremonies were an integral part of community life, and huge regional celebrations were likely to have had ceremonial, spiritual, social, cultural and economic significance. Campsites and dwellings existed wherever there was fresh water nearby. 2 | P a g e Eprapah Creek was important to Aboriginal people, both the tidal zone and the freshwater upstream. A large village is known to have existed on the banks of the creek in what is now the Eprapah and Point Halloran Conservation area, as well as camps further upstream. The Aboriginal name for Victoria Point was Warrer Warrer (or Warra Warra). Victoria Point was first surveyed in 1859, and the first portions were sold in 1860. It is not known how long it took the settlers to displace the indigenous people living on and around the Point; various personal accounts up to the 1880s exist, of Aborigines living on the foreshore, including the reserve on the tip of the Point. Leona Kyling noted that the sounds of waddies and corroborees could be heard in the area surrounding the aged care home that she built on Boundary Road, and which opened in 1960, possibly from the Eprapah Creek camp. Over the centuries, many tracks and travel routes were formed on the islands and the mainland. When the European settlers arrived, these tracks proved invaluable to their own travels. Descendants of the original residents still live in the area, especially on Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island). When the first Europeans arrived in the area in the 1820s, Aboriginal people in the area we now call Redland City numbered more than 5,000. Link Road is a direct link between Eprapah and Moogurrapum Creeks, and this connection between the two would have been important. In the 20th Century an Aboriginal family owned and farmed almost a quarter of the farmland at the southern end of the road. 1955 QImagery 3 | P a g e Exploration Captain Matthew Flinders entered Moreton Bay. He landed at several places, including what is now Coochiemudlo Island, which he described as having “large and luxuriant” trees, including abundant mangrove trees, pandanus palms and Bribie Island pine trees, and sand on the south-west and north-east sides. Fauna included cockatoos and parakeets. He also noted what he thought was a wide, shallow river which was in fact Redland Bay. Nowadays, his Coochiemudlo Island visit is celebrated on Flinders Day every July, often with a re- enactment of his landing. Re-enactment of Flinders landing at Coochiemudlo Island, 1990 HP8036 1822 In March John Bingle entered Moreton Bay in search of a place, preferably with a river that might suit a new penal settlement. He didn’t find any major rivers but he provided some of the earliest recorded descriptions of the coastline. 1837 The first steamship entered Moreton Bay. 1839 Government surveyors Dixon, Warner and Stapylton began surveying Brisbane in preparation for the first land sales. Until this time, free settlers were not allowed within 50 miles of the Moreton Bay penal settlement (Brisbane), which is why there was no official European presence on the mainland parts of what is now the Redland Shire. 4 | P a g e 1840s Government surveyor Robert Dixon began surveying Stradbroke and Moreton Islands. He and Surveyor Warner also surveyed the coast from Brisbane River to Innes (Coochiemudlo) Island. Dixon named Mount Cotton after Major Cotton and Coochiemudlo Island ‘Innes Island’ after Lieutenant Innes of the 57th Regiment of Moreton Bay. He also named Macleay and Russell Islands, Victoria Point and Point Halloran. Point Halloran was called Point Henry on the earliest maps, then it was renamed Point Halloran after the first government surveys were completed in the mid-1800s. It was most likely named after Arthur Edward Halloran, who was Sheriff of Queensland at that time. An 1842 map by Surveyors Dixon and Liley shows that many of the European place names for local features had already been documented by then. It also shows some tracks that later became major roads. In May 1842 the Moreton Bay penal settlement was officially proclaimed closed and the area was open to free settlers. In July the first public sale of Brisbane land was held. European Settlement When Queensland was still part of New South Wales, all of the area from Ormiston south to the Logan River was leased to Joseph Clark, and he ran cattle on the land. The new colony of Queensland was created in 1859, and Separation Day 10 December was celebrated for many years to come. Victoria Point was first surveyed that year, and the first portions of land were sold in 1860. Brisbane businessman Johann Christian Heussler was appointed by the new Queensland Government to recruit German settlers for the new colony. In the following years, many Germans settled in Queensland. The earliest settlers in Victoria Point were John and Maria Dawson and Joseph Scragg, who were farmers, and bullock driver William Nutt. John Dawson died in 1865 and Maria married William Nutt.