On September 14, 1824,the Colony of Moreton Bay was established. From here, Brisbane and eventually the State of Queensland, Australia would form. On the evening of the 12th, after a 12 day passage from Sydney, the brig Amity anchored "about 1 mile" (1.6 kilometres) east of the present Humpybong Creek, Redcliffe. On board were surveyor John Oxley, botanist Cunningham, 29 convicts, and from the 40th Regiment, 5th Company, 10 married crew and their wives, 3 of whom were pregnant, along with 9 children.
Lt Miller, of the 40th Regiment of foot (2nd Sommerset) was appointed commandant by Governor Brisbane.
The previous day, about 6 am the Amity had weighed from under Cape Moreton with a fresh Southerly wind and breakers, working winward. After dinner the whale boat proceeded to ‘Pumice Stone River’ infact a passage separating what is now named Bribie Island from the mainland.
On this same day, 175 years later, the kiln set up to fire bricks for the new settlement was found. The team from Queensland University was ledd by Professor John Pragnell. This morning, Sunday 13th September, is the date for the Annual first Settlement Festival, at Redcliffe, north of Brisbane.
As I stood outside the excavation fence, I admit I felt a little envious. This was my family plot, my Amity ancestors walked this ground. Of the three children born at the short lived settlement, I descend from the third, Mary Cox, the youngest resident of Moreton Bay and later Edenglassie, now called Brisbane.
The three children led different lives, Captain Millers son, Charles born November 1824, went on to be a renowned business person in Tasmania and Victoria, Amilty Moreton Thompson, born a few days after the Settlement on 21st September, 1824, returned to England following her father’s death in India in 1833, Mary’s father William was invalided from the Army in 1838 but Mary, although only 13, refused to go and married a William Maud. William would die in Britain after the 40th regiment left India leaving Mary a widow at 27. However, if stories are accurate her husband fought in the Sikh Wars and was involved in the Battle of the Khyber Pass. Family stories even claim a Sikh woman warned her that a ruse had been used to lure toe men away from the camp so it could be destroyed and the woman dressed in Uniform and marched in front of the barracks as if they were soldiers on guard duty.
Mary remarried back in the regiment in Britain and returned to Australia in the 1850’s. Her husband fought in the Mouri Wars and her brother may have fought at the eureka Stockade (however, I have not found evidnce supporting the family claim).Mary died in St Kilda, Victoria, in 1909, a few months after the death of her son Samuel who rose to the ranks of inspecting in the Victorian Police Force.
Although I have looked forward to this discovery for sometime. I still wonder what was it like. Australia had been revolutionised following the Bigge’s Report which alleged that governor Macquarie had been to lenient with convicts. The report was influenced by Macquarie's arch foe, John MacCarthur who had been apart of the Rum Rebellion, the mutiny that ousted William Bligh as Governor. (And yes, this is the same Bligh who also experienced a mutiny on the Bounty).
Moreton Bay was part of the policy to remove second offenders from Sydney, although many of the original convicts were volunteers hoping to earn earlier release.
It is possible governor Brisbane hoped the Brisbane River would lead to the mythical inland sea. To the British soldiers, these tropics were hard to endure. The settlement was hindered by rampant tropical disease and a poorly equipped pharmacy. Everything would have been foreign to British eyes; even the grass has a harshness to it, unlike the soft lawns of England.
It is of interest that the settlement storeman, a Dr Scott, would later be a strident advocate against the convict system, even though the original settlement predated the excesses of the Captain Lockyer.
Of course, Redcliffe was forgotten when Brisbane town grew but would re-emerge as a tourist spot in the 1860’s.
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