THE FUTURE ISNT WHAT IT USED TO BE

For much of the last century, attitudes towards some minority groups led to anti-social behaviour, so whatever your background you may have grown up with some prejudice. Any Australian who can trace a slight link to a Convict ancestor is keen to let it be known, but that has not always been the case. Some who previously concealed aspects of their heritage now warmly embrace it. Modern technology enables people to identify tenuous links to distant ancestors through DNA which creates an interesting reversal of prejudice and pride.

throughout the year. It was indeed a land of plenty that supported several hundred people in seasonal camps around the island and along the Passage.

Matthew Flinders was the first explorer to visit Bribie Island and Moreton Bay in 1799 with his Sydney aboriginal friend Bongaree and crew aboard the Sloop Norfolk. Twenty-five years after that first visit the Moreton Bay penal colony and Brisbane were established, and in less than 100 years very few of the native people remained.

In 1877 an Aboriginal reserve was established at White Patch on Bribie Island, but it closed after a couple of years when funding ended. A few years later in 1891, a School was established at Mission Point, but it also only operated for a short time before being relocated to Stradbroke Island

In 1891 Archibald Meston as Government Protector of Aboriginals visited Bribie Island and reported that there were very few remaining, and specifically mentioned a lady named Kal-Ma-Kuta as the last of the Joondooburrie.

The life of Kal-Ma-Kuta reminds us of the standards and values from that time not very long ago. She had married a white man, Fred Turner, and they lived and raised their family at Turners Camp on Ningi Creek for 23 years. Two of their children were at Mission Point School up the Passage and when it was closed all the children were relocated to Myora on Stradbroke Island.

Fred Turner had come from England with his family to Australia aged 8 and later met and married Kal-Ma-Kuta who became known as Alma Turner

Before Christmas 1894 Fred and Alma wrote to the Colonial Secretary asking if their two children, who had been moved to Stradbroke Island when the Mission School closed, could come home for a few days over Christmas.

The request was refused!!

During their 23 years living at Turners Camp on Ningi Creek, they had the job of maintaining the shipping navigation Pilot Light on Toorbul Point, where Sandstone Point Hotel now stands. Every evening they would walk around the point with a bottle of Kerosene and fill the navigation light. In the morning they would walk back and put it out. They did this for over 20 years providing safe passage for the many ships travelling up and down Pumicestone Passage at that time.

Prior to the record rainfall and floods of 1893, Pumicestone Passage was a major waterway for large ships servicing the Campbellville timber mill on Coochin Creek and transporting Oysters to market from the passage.

Over the years Fred and Alma had 8 children and all of them, plus some grandchildren and great-grandchildren were taken away from their mothers “for their own good”. When Alma Turner (Kal-MaKuta) died around 1897 her burial site was marked with a traditional Fig Tree, which later became the resting place for three other descendants, including the ashes of her daughter Florence who died in 1961.

Florence was one of the children at Mission Point School who was refused permission to go home at Christmas 1894. Her mother died just three years later in 1897.

Sixty-five years passed before Kal-Ma-Kuta’s life and work with Fred was recognised with an appropriate memorial. In 1962 the Caboolture Historical Society erected a memorial cairn to mark the burial site.

Toorbul Point and Turner's Camp land was owned by the James Clark family and was used as a military training camp during World War 2. The Clark family offered land for her memorial to be erected in 1962 when the Bribie Island Road and Bridge were being constructed. To accommodate the memorial cairn the road was constructed as a dual carriageway at that point so the cairn and fig tree were safely located in the central road reserve prior to the opening of the new Bribie Bridge in 1963. The memorial cairn remains in the bushland between the two roads largely unnoticed to this day.

In 2004 Turner's family descendant asked the then Caboolture Shire Council to erect a monument at the Turners Camp site and a stone carving was commissioned which portrayed an old Navigation Light encrusted with Oysters. However, the plaque gave no indication that Alma Turner was the last of the Bribie aboriginal people. Such was the dilemma of publicly recognising her heritage just 19 years ago. An additional plaque was later added to correct that omission and the Turners Camp memorial with its two plaques can be seen on Turners Camp Road turning left off the Bribie Island Road before the KalMa-Kuta memorial in the central road reserve.

Historical Society meetings are on the 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