Moreton Island History
Moreton Island just 35 kilometers from Central Brisbane is a sand mass measuring a little under 20 square kilometers in area. The only solid rock to be found on the island is located at Cape Moreton on the North eastern tip. The island is wedge shaped and has a north south axis extending for almost 35 kilometers.
Moreton Island forms the north eastern gateway to Moreton bay and a sheltered waterway system stretching south to the Gold Coast. The island is a unique wilderness area within sight of Brisbane city's skyscrapers and smog. It has no bitumen roads and few permanent residents.
Listed on the Australian Heritage Register, Moreton Island is much the same today as it was when James Cook sailed by on the way home from his voyage of discovery in 1770. From its unspoiled beaches to the crest of Mt Tempest the world's highest sand dune, Moreton Island is a fragile wonderland of unforgettable subtropical beauty.
The First Inhabitants
The creation of Moreton Island, once part of the mainland is shrouded in the mist of time. It is generally agreed that the island and its southern neighbours, North and South Stradbroke Islands, have basked in the Queensland sun for at least 6,000 years. The Shifting Sands over that period have wrought many changes but certainly Moreton island has existed in isolation from the other Bay islands for a considerable period. North and South Stradbroke Islands were not separated until the late 1800's.
Because of it's much earlier detachment, Moreton Island became home for a resident population unique on the eastern coast of Australia. The Ngugi Tribe (pronounced nooghie) has been described as the "happiest, healthiest and most self sufficient race on the face of the earth."
After separation, treacherous waters and racing tides left the Ngugi island bound to develop their own language and culture, and a lifestyle apart from their neighbours on Stradbroke and the mainland - different species of plants and an almost total absence of native fauna - no kangaroos, possums or koalas. Middens (native feasting places) reveal the existence of man on Moreton Island for many thousands of years.
Within the confines of the island, the Ngugi lived a wandering lifestyle which took advantage of the islands rich food resources. Their diet included oysters, eugarie, whelks, mussels, fish, dugong, turtle, sand and mud crabs, freshwater tortoise, flying fox, goanna, pandanus fruits, wild honey and midgin fruit which was plentiful on the southern end of the island
Before the coming of Cook, the Ngugi had mastered the art of maritime trading and there are early recorded sightings of Aborigines crossing by canoe between Moreton and Stradbroke Islands probably to fish and hunt, and certainly to barter - Cape Moreton sandstone has been found throughout the Moreton Bay Island system and on the adjacent mainland.
There is evidence of dilly bags, shells, reed and shell ornaments, grinding stones and fishing nets of Ngugi origin among the mainland tribes.
The Moreton Islanders also had social contact with other tribes in South Eastern Queensland. They attended initiation ceremonies on the mainland of the annual Bunya Feast north-west of Toowoomba which attracted natives from great distances.
The number of Ngugi living on Moreton Island when the Europeans arrived in Moreton Bay is not known. The island's population was ravaged by smallpox in the early days. They suffered a massacre around 1833 and by 1850 most of the survivors had moved to Stradbroke Island.
This once proud and resourceful face is no now no more.
A Slip of the Quill
The first thing that the white man did for Moreton Island was to get the name wrong. On May 17, 1770, James Cook named the prominent cape on the Island and the adjacent bay in honour of the Earl of Morton. In Hawkworth's edition of Coo's Voyages published in 1793, Morton was misspelt and became Moreton. The error was perpetuated by Matthew Flinders who named Moreton Island in July 1799.
The Castaways
The first white inhabitants of Moreton Island were convicts.
"We rounded the Point Skirmish about 5 o'clock and observed a number of natives running along the beach towards the vessel, the foremost much lighter in colour than the rest. We were to the last degree astonished when he came abreast the vessel to hear him hail us in good English"
This entry in John Oxley's diary on November 19, 1823 describes this historic meeting north of Brisbane between the explorer and Thomas Pamphlett, a ticket of leave convict. Ten months earlier, Pamphlett and three other men on their way from Sydney to fell timber on the New South Wales coast were caught in a storm and blown north. After 21 days at sea with very little water, desperate and near death, the three survivors managed to beach their boat on Moreton Island.
The Ngugi Aboriginals "were universally kind and assisted them". When the castaways had recovered from their ordeal, the native people took them by boat to the other Moreton Bay islands and the mainland.
The castaways attempted to find their way back to Sydney and in the process discovered the Brisbane River and were able to show Oxley, who was searching for a place with freshwater for the establishment of a penal colony, the site which today is the city of Brisbane.
For more information about specific areas on Moreton Island please refer to our interactive map.