On Saturday 29 November 1823, John Oxley was taking soundings off what is now called Bribie Island. He was on a surveying journey to this this little-known part of the colony with a view to the suitability of the area for yet another penal establishment. (Nice to know that we owe our city to the inexhaustible British appetite for crime and recidivism.)
Oxley noticed a light-skinned man in a group of indigenous people on the beach. The rest, extracted from his survey book, is history.
The river, first seen by Pamphlet and his fellow sailors, became the Brisbane River, and was formally explored by Oxley (who was a gentleman and took credit for its discovery).
Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM3440620, Field Book: Survey of Port Wilmot (Rodd’s Bay) by Surveyor John Oxley
Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM714407, Skirmish Point to Cape Byron, showing part of Brisbane River, by Lt. Stirling, 1825.
Moreton Bay and More 