100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

Voyage through history: the famous coastal cruisers who put us on the map

Do you have a news tip? Click here to send to our news team.

Construction to start on long-awaited lakefront church

Works are about to start on a lakeside facility that will finally provide a church with a permanent home. Hm.church has announced that construction on More

Gym that set the bar on the Coast marks 30 years

A gym that began in a converted nightclub has celebrated 30 years in business, with at least two originals still on board. Suncoast Fitness began More

Renowned triathlon returns, roads closed

The 41st edition of a world-famous triathlon is set to take place this weekend, when key roads will be closed for racing. The Noosa Triathlon, More

Survey shows strong support for Dark Sky Reserve

Sunshine Coast locals have backed plans to establish a Dark Sky Reserve, which could protect much of the region's night sky from light pollution. More More

B2B: Business value maximisation

Many owners run their business to fund their lifestyle and that of family members, but do not get time to focus on maximising business More

Photo of the day: orange glow

Sunrise looking out over the Noosa River towards Hastings Street, by Terrie Haley. If you have a photo of the day offering, email photo@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. Photos More

The names, Cook, Flinders and Petrie are well known to us all. Sunshine Coast News revisits the voyages of the explorers who put us on the map – literally.

In 1770, Captain James Cook was returning to England in the Endeavour and making a fairly hasty voyage up the east coast of Australia. He left us some notable names such as Point Lookout, Cape Morton (later Moreton) and the Glass House Mountains.

Cook (pictured) marked the eastern shores of the islands, Moreton, Stradbroke and Bribie, as being part of the mainland.

Cautious of sandbars, shoals and mangroves, neither Cook nor Matthew Flinders came close enough to the shore to discover our rivers.

In 1798, Flinders and George Bass had earned fame for their circumnavigation of Tasmania. A year later, Flinders in the same ship, Norfolk, became the first to explore Moreton Bay.

He saw and named a large stream of water, Pumice Stone River after sighting a quantity of pumice stone on the shore, not realising that he was seeing a passage, now known as Pumicestone Passage.

Inspired by the great inventors of the Industrial Revolution, Flinders may have bestowed the names of the two headlands – Point Arkwright and Point Cartwright.

Lieutenant Heath had named Point Cartwright as Point Raper in 1861, but that name has been lost.

The Glasshouse Mountains in the 1930s. Image: Picture Sunshine Coast

On seeing red cliffs he named Red Cliff Point, now known as the Redcliffe Peninsula, and landed at Woody Point and Clontarf Point.

He identified the islands of Moreton Bay by numbers on his charts, landing only on Coochie Mudlo Island.

With great risk, he sailed further up the passage, landing and climbing Mt Beerburrum but did not access any other peak. Many creeks were crossed and the terrain was rough.

Flinders set sail northwards after 15 days in the area. In 1802, he passed by again, well out to sea, in the Investigator while circumnavigating Australia.

The Matthew Flinders statue at Port Lincoln.

The next visitors to the Sunshine Coast included two ticket-of-leave men and also five escaped convicts from the convict settlement at Moreton Bay. These men were to provide valuable information for Andrew Petrie about the resources of what would become the Sunshine Coast.

In 1837, Andrew Petrie had arrived at the convict settlement, established in 1827, at Moreton Bay as the Supervisor of Works. He made two expeditions north in 1838 and 1842 and named the Maroochy River from an Aboriginal word meaning black swan.

Among the forests of cedar, beech and pine trees he saw, he recognised the bunya as a valuable food source for Aborigines and persuaded Governor Gipps to declare the district north of Moreton Bay and south of the Maroochy River off limits to timber-getters and squatters.

Andrew Petrie

The declaration was called the Bunya Proclamation and forbade the issuing of licences to cut timber. In 1860, after Queensland became a separate colony, the declaration was reversed and timber-getters and pastoralists moved in.

A government survey was undertaken in 1861 to chart the entrances of the Mooloolah, Maroochy and Noosa Rivers.  The following year, Andrew Petrie’s son Thomas explored the lower reaches of the Maroochy and was the first to harvest rich stands of cedar.

The rivers presented access to the rich timber resources and the bountiful hinterland.

So began European settlement of the Sunshine Coast. The land belonged to the Crown and was sold off to new settlers.

What happened to our First Nation people, who had already lived on the Sunshine Coast for approximately 40,000 years in times of forests, bunya feasts and bountiful rains, is another story.

Help keep more great Coast memories alive by subscribing to our free daily news feed. Go to Subscribe at the top of this story and add your name and email. It’s that simple.

Subscribe to SCN’s free daily news email

Hidden
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
[scn_go_back_button] Return Home
Share