Tag: Queensland. Aboriginal history. Aboriginal settlements. Australian Aboriginal
Mission Point
The book “Mission Point” subtitled “Bribie Island Aboriginal Mission 1890-92”, tells the story of the second aboriginal mission established on Bribie Island for Moreton Bay aboriginals. However, native superstition worked strongly against the location at Bribie Island.
Featured Image(above): Private Richard Martin
Newspapers of the time described it as “adverse heredity superstition”. Why were the Moreton Bay aboriginals so scared of Bribie Island? Similar superstition did not apply to the Myora Mission on North Stradbroke Island (1892-1942) or the Cherbourg mission (established 1900). Those missions were successful and today honour their past in their own museums that are proudly open to the public.
Children from Bribie Mission awaiting transport on SS Miner to Peel Island. To stay there temporarily while buildings were being moved from Bribie to Stradbroke Island Mission and the Myora site set up.
Ron Powell is a friend and honorary life member of the North Stradbroke Island Historical Society and thanks to the society and The Cherbourg Historical Precinct Group, for their help in researching material. Included are some 50 photos including the Cherbourg Ration Shed Museum. We look briefly at the natives’ superstition and the Queensland Government appointing a great number of white people with authority to remove Aboriginal people onto and between reserves.
To take aboriginal children from parents, place them in dormitories, reserves, missions, forbid speech in their native tongue and when they turned fourteen years of age put them out to white persons as household servants or farm hands at a reduced rate of pay. The Australian constitution declared Aboriginal people were not counted in any census, denied them citizenship and all legal rights.
Cherbourg Ration Shed Museum
Australia prohibited aborigines volunteering for the armed services throughout World War 1, a marked contrast to New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi that granted full citizenship rights to Maori people as early as 1840.
We dedicate this book to the memory of Richard Martin, who successfully joined the AIF on 17th December 1914, by falsely declaring on his attestation papers that he was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. He served at Gallipoli, Egypt, Belgium, and France until his death in action on 28 March 1918.
The book sells for $11.95 at Bribie Nextra Newsagency and Bribie Island Arts Centre.