Wunya Ngulum

The Moreton Bay settlement, established on 14 September 1824 as a small penal outpost far from Sydney, was the foundation of the modern state of Queensland. It was imposed on the lands of the indigenous people who have lived in the northern littoral of a tidal bay called Moora. The settlement was established at Red Cliff Point, the Redcliffe of today.

Indigenous Peoples had lived in this fruitful and abundant region for at least 30 millennia - both on islands in the Bay and along its littoral. Throughout the millennia, the region was a place of great cultural significance to the Peoples of the region. The Indigenous way of life was entwined with the land and it’s produce and with the sea and it’s bounty.

The European open-air gaol and tiny military outpost was established against great odds. Under-resourced and under-supplied, the men, women, and children of the settlement – free persons and convicts alike - endured much. Nevertheless this outpost community survived and the story of the seven months of the Moreton Bay Settlement at Red Cliff is an integral part of what, after 1859, became the colony of Queensland and after 1901, the state of Queensland.

A bicentenary is a time to reflect on these facts of history; and to view and interpret them through the lens of twenty-first century analysis. All Australians, those who descend from our First Peoples and those who do not, acknowledge the clash of two proud cultures – each ignorant of the history and heritage of the other – but, as Australians today, share the common history of both.

Conference Papers — both Presented and Read by Title

In the Beginning

“The First People of Queensland” – includes Welcome

“Language Groups – Red Cliff & Bribie Island People (Ngunda; Ningi Ningi; Kabi Kabi; Joondoburri); Waka Waka”( Gaja Kerry Charlton)

“ The Legacy of Bongaree” —Sharlene Leroy-Dyer

“A Ramble in Time” — Michael Strong

“Environmental Resources — First Nations’ Campsites and Place Names in the Redcliffe Area” —Ray Kerkhove and Melinda Serico

“The First Bigge Report” — John Pearn and Ruth Kerr

“Newcastle – The Bigge Model for Moreton Bay” Tamsin O’Connor

Preparation and Planning

“John Oxley — The Focus of the Settlement” Denver Beanland

“Pamphlett, Parsons and Finnegan” Chris Pearce

“The Military of New South Wales(1788-1824)” — Cliff Pollard

“The 40th Regiment of Foot” — Jeffrey Hopkins-Wise

“The Amity” — John Pearn

“Marine Surveys of Moreton Bay,1820-1824” — Donna Holmes

The Moreton Bay Settlement

“Lieutenant Henry Miller” — John Pearn

“Walter Scott – the Foundation of Queensland Medicine” — John Pearn

“Hoddle and the Marine Survey” — Matthew Rowe

“Peopling the Periphery”[ convicts, soldiers, wives and children] — Jennifer Harrison

“The McCauley Family — A Soldier of the Settlement” — Roger Ford

“Cunningham’s Flora of the Settlement” — Gary Bacon

Aftermath

“ Moving Upstream” [Decision to Transfer the Settlement] — Jennifer Harrison

“The Use of the Land — after Settlement Abandonment” — Ruth Kerr

“The Second Bigge Report — the Courts and Sir Francis Forbes” —Stephen Sheaffe

“ Early Colonial Culture in Moreton Bay ”— Heather Clarke

Legacy of the Settlement

The Redcliffe Centenary Commemoration – 1924

“Preserving and Promoting Redcliffe Material Heritage” — Duane Hart

“The Redcliffe Railway” — Greg Hallam and Ruth Kerr

“Historia in argentum” — Rae Frawley

Enduring Legacy — The Numismatics of the Bicentenary

Enduring Legacy — A Philatelic Commemoration — Craig Chapple Mervyn Cobcroft John Pearn