Timothy Duffy was an Irish convict, who had been transported for highway robbery in 1822, and who became a familiar and well-liked figure in early Brisbane as the Bay Fisherman. His progress towards reform and respectability was slow, and some would say, incomplete. He liked a drink, hated a bailiff, and could curse with legendaryContinue reading “The Bay Fisherman.”
Category Archives: Indigenous People of Moreton Bay
Other “D” stories – Dundalli, Davis and Dowse.
James Davis “Duramboi.” James Davis (1808-1889) was a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a forbidding, taciturn man. A blacksmith’s son from Glasgow, James Davis was convicted as a teenager of “theft, habit and repute” (a thief who associates with other thieves) in 1824 and transported to New South Wales on the Minstrel. He wasContinue reading “Other “D” stories – Dundalli, Davis and Dowse.”
Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 1.
The Sketch Map of Brisbane Town in 1844, and the stories behind it. A rough, sketched map of Brisbane town in 1844 reposes in the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. It is attributed to Carl Friedrich Gerler, who arrived in Brisbane as a missionary to the Zion Hill establishment in 1844. The buildingsContinue reading “Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 1.”
A Man Apart.
CONVICT SNAPSHOTS: EDWARD STEELE Imagine being a person of colour in 1808. Now imagine being a person of colour in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1808. Your skin colour would be the first, and often the only, thing anyone noticed about you – a situation that did not change through your whole life, no matter whereContinue reading “A Man Apart.”
Foot Races, Amateur Theatrics and an Influx of Wizards: Pre-Separation Entertainment in Moreton Bay.
How did we entertain ourselves in those first days of free settlement? In the rough and ready early years, sawyers, blacksmiths and stockmen from out of town congregated in places with names like the Sawyer’s Arms and the Bush Commercial Inn. Apart from hard-working men getting really quite drunk together, organized public entertainments took aContinue reading “Foot Races, Amateur Theatrics and an Influx of Wizards: Pre-Separation Entertainment in Moreton Bay.”
February 20, 1872 – the death of Andrew Petrie.
DEATH OF MR. ANDREW PETRIE, SEN. The death of the oldest free resident in our community and colony, is an event not to be allowed to happen without notice; and the aged, revered, and useful citizen who has just left our world for a better was no ordinary man. The name of ANDREW PETRIE isContinue reading “February 20, 1872 – the death of Andrew Petrie.”
February 10, 1862 – first land sales at Nanango
Although the first official Land Sale in Nanango took place on 10 February 1862, the area had a long history. Before white settlement, the area was an important stop on the ancient route taken by people from many far-flung indigenous nations to meet for the Bunya nut feasts, important in terms of diplomacy, trade andContinue reading “February 10, 1862 – first land sales at Nanango”
February 8, 1849 – The Death of Dick Ben.
On 18 October 1846, a settler named Andrew Gregor and his servant Mary Shannon were murdered by a group of indigenous men at Pine River. If the mass poisoning by the whites at Kilcoy in 1842 was the defining white outrage in the eyes of indigenous people, the Gregor-Shannon murders were the turning point forContinue reading “February 8, 1849 – The Death of Dick Ben.”
February 4, 1862: Kipper Billy and Billy Horton sentenced to death
In January 1862, near Ipswich, a woman named Mrs Jane Rae was assaulted, probably sexually, on the banks of the river, as she did the family wash. When her grown son came to her aid, she stated that a number of indigenous men had been responsible, although none were about when he found her. SheContinue reading “February 4, 1862: Kipper Billy and Billy Horton sentenced to death”
A Brief History of Bushranging in Queensland. Part 1.
1824-1842 Moreton Bay Convict Settlement “Bushranging” was a term invented around 1805 to describe the actions of escaped convicts who took to the bush, often leading violent outlaw lives to secure food and avoid capture. Absconding became an attractive option in the penal settlements of Sydney (est. 1788) and Van Diemen’s Land (est. 1803). Food was scarce, rations wereContinue reading “A Brief History of Bushranging in Queensland. Part 1.”
Moreton Bay and More 