Tags: History. Bribie island. Queensland. Australia. Prewar.
Prewar Bribie Island
‘A picture is worth a thousand words,’ may apply to the new book, ‘Prewar Bribie Island’, for it contains over 100 photos of Bribie Island taken about a century ago,” said author Warwick Outram. These pictures of when prewar Bribie’, was.
Queensland’s top island tourist resort are of interest to residents and visitors, for the book gives an indication of the number of people who travelled to Bribie, how they came, their dress, attraction to Bribie, employment, holiday options, and business opportunities.
Featured Image(top): “Koopa” in passage by W & FL Gardner.
The Bribie community is indebted to Vera Campbell (nee Huet) born in 1902 who as a young girl became interested in photography. Vera had the old type camera using expensive film that provided only about a dozen photos. When exposed the film was sent to Kodak for processing and about two weeks later came back as negatives plus black and white prints. Vera later entrusted her snapshots to Ted Clayton and it is a privilege to present these old photos with Ted’s notes plus some information written by Ted’s cousin, Alex Barnett, telling of his pre-war holidays on Bribie.
Today’s Bribie is quite different to the prewar era. Today’s people mention the “Lamington Syndrome”. Do you know what they are referring? The book gives a brief explanation. Warwick mentioned, in 1974 when told that Bribie was ‘The Cradle Site of Queensland’, he asked the Bribie Librarian for further information and was surprised when told neither Bribie Library nor other Caboolture Shire Libraries had any books regarding the history of Bribie Island.
“Doomba” in passage by Mrs Winston.
He went away, wrote some short articles about Bribie’s History, had them printed and handed them out to visiting campers and caravaners. Shortly after Bribie Librarian, Lou Young wrote ‘Information for Students’, the first book in Bribie Library relating to Local History. I continued writing articles for the Chamber of Commerce Holiday Guide, local papers and speaking at meetings about our history as people had told me.
I retired about 25 years ago, concentrated on recording Bribie anecdotal history and have now written, printed and donated some 40 books, to the Local History Section of Bribie Library plus the statutory reference libraries throughout the nation. The object is to provide schoolchildren, local residents, visitors, and researchers with fully indexed reference to information that Bribie Islanders and others have told of Bribie’s past. Ted Clayton congratulated Warwick, saying, ‘This format reaches a wide audience and brings together dates and information that gives the Campbell’s their true place as Bribie Pioneers.’
The book ‘Prewar Bribie’ is available at Nextra Newsagency and Bribie Community Arts Centre RRP $11.95