100 YEARS OF BRIBIE PHOTOS

MORE BRIBIE HISTORY Historical Society meetings are second Wednesday of each month at 6;30 pm at the RSL Club and visitors are always welcome. See more stories and photos of Bribie's history on our Web Site Bribiehistoricalsociety. org.au and Blog Site http:// bribieislandhistory.blogspot.com or contact us on bribiehistoricalsociety@ gmail.com

The photo heading this article of a group driving on Bribie’s Ocean Beach is very special. It is one of about 100 photos taken by Vera Huet in the 1920s at a time when having a camera at all was rare. This young lady captured great records of life on Bribie, and we are indebted to the late Ted Clayton who carefully stored these photos which we were able to scan.

Vera Huet later married Reg Campbell who had a general Cash store on the south esplanade beside the Creek. The photo was taken just one year after the first road was built from Bongaree to Ocean Beach in 1924.

A travelling Circus visited Bribie in 1992 and a performing lion walked around the streets as a promotional stunt. The lion was photographed with Don outside his Pharmacy. Don Mullen had Pharmacies on the island for over 50 years and was, and still is, very active in the community, including founding the Bribie Island Golf Club. Don kindly gave me this special photo for which I thank him.

Bribie Island has long been a nesting ground for Turtles. This photo is quite disturbing today, of a lady standing on top of a turtle, surrounded by a crowd who may have caught it. Such behaviour is totally unacceptable today, but it is interesting to see the clothes that both sexes wore to go to the beach a hundred years ago. This is another Vera Campbell (nee Huet) photo taken around 1922.

Ian Fairweather is acclaimed as the most important Australian artist of the 20th Century. He is variously described as a hermit, eccentric, adventurer, wanderer, philosopher, linguist, recluse ….and brilliant artist. He lived in a grass hut in the Bribie bush for 21 years from 1953 until he died in 1974. He came to Bribie after a long and challenging life in two world wars, having studied at Slade School of Art in London and lived in Jersey, Holland, Manila Canada, China, Bali and Melbourne before seeking the solitude of Bribie Island.

He was 61 years old when he built his Polynesian-style grass hut close to the Bribie rubbish tip, the source of many of his painting surfaces. Living a solitary and basic life without water, sewerage, or electricity, creating thousands of abstract works involving up to 50 layers of paint. A few hundred survive hanging in galleries around the world, including Parliament House Canberra.

His paintings express his complex life and emotions, which were later recognised by the World Art Society with an International Medal. This rare photo was taken of Ian Fairweather looking clean, well-dressed, smiling, and enjoying a drink outside his grass hut with some rare but important visitors.

I retired to Bribie in 2004 after a worldwide career in Project Management with no real interest in history until I met a longterm resident named Stella Ray who came to Bribie as a young bride in 1947 and had hardly left the island in 60 years. We decided to find all the people in Bribie who had lived here for 50 years or more, so over the next two years we spent several hours each week interviewing over 150 people. They were all fascinating people, with wonderful memories and photos, but we found just 12 who had lived on Bribie longer than 50 continuous years. That’s how my initial interest in the history of Bribie was born. I approached the then Caboolture Shire Council to get a sign erected in Brennan Park to honour these people. It took a while, and only 8 were still alive when the sign was unveiled in 2007. The photo shows some of them (L to R) Clare Tesch, Sally Brennan, Stella Ray (wheelchair), me and Major Joy Leishman.

The Historical Society has organised many commemorative events over the years, and in 2012 we unveiled bronze plaques on a rock near the jetty to commemorate the centenary of the settlement of Bongaree in 1912. This photo shows members of the Historical Society in the 1912 period costume. You may recognise people in this photo.