BRIBIE ISALAND, OLD TRAVEL
Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of the three so-called ‘Brisbane Islands’ that partially enclose Moreton Bay. It lies just 70km from the Brisbane CBD via the Gateway Motorway and Bruce Highway (M1) and is linked to the mainland by an 830m bridge across the narrow Pumicestone Passage.
The sand islands
Together with Moreton and Stradbroke Islands, Bribie was formed over the past million years or so from sand eroded from the mountains of northern New South Wales which was swept up the coast by wind and ocean currents. The grains became trapped by rocky outcrops and gradually accumulated into large deposits several hundred metres thick. When the ocean dropped to its present level about 10,000 years ago, the sand banks became exposed and isolated as islands with the familiar shapes we see today. K'gari (Fraser Island) was created in the same way and is the largest sand island in the world; North Stradbroke and Moreton are the second and third largest.
First inhabitants
Indigenous people have lived in the Moreton Bay area for at least 26,000 years. They call it Quandamooka, meaning ‘place of the creator sea spirit Quandamook’, who took the form of a dolphin. Various groups inhabited Quandamooka and frequently interacted across loose tribal boundaries to maintain social and cultural relationships. The area around the Pumicestone Passage was occupied by the Djindubari ( Joondoobarrie) people, who occupied the island and
