Information

Much-used Aboriginal Camp, exploiting the abundant fishery of the mouth of Pine River. Here the castaways Finnegan, Pamphlet and Parsons (first white men to explore the Brisbane region) stayed in 1823. The site was still considered the abode of ‘wild’ and ‘dangerous’ Aborigines as late as the 1870s. In 1885, Adam Cleft (an Aboriginal) murdered his wife at this Camp, resulting in an inquest and alleged assaults that prompted the eviction of many Aboriginals across the Sandgate district, although there was a lingering presence into the 1890s. In 1946, after several years of the area’s use for RAAF WW2 training, many Dunwich Aboriginals came to live in the vicinity of the former Camp as servants and staff to the 800 inmates transferred from Dunwich Benevolent Society to Eventide.

Citations

Ray Kerkhove, 2015, Aboriginal Campsites of Greater Brisbane (Salisbury: Boolarong), 39.

Image Citations

Map References

QSA. QSA Series 1748 Moreton District, County of Stanley Maps – A1 Series. 4 chains to the inch. Plan of the Marine township of Brighton on the shores of Moreton Bay adjoining Sandgate, Parish of Nundah, County of Stanley with local plan at ca mile to one inch. ca 4 chains to the inch. Millington & Co., Licensed Surveyors, Brisbane. 620404