HISTORY OF JETTIES OF THE REDLANDS COAST
When we think of jetties, this is what usually comes to mind – a place that we visit on a Saturday afternoon for fishing or an ice cream. This is Wellington Point jetty.
We too easily forget that in the past, jetties were critical for the economic survival of small coastal communities. They were the marine equivalent of railway stations.
It is not surprising to discover that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the shoreline of the Redlands was bristling with both public and private jetties.
Unfortunately, timber jetties have short lives. Few of the old wooden jetties still exist today.
PRIVATE JETTIES
As the name suggests, these were built by landowners and businesses along the shoreline and were generally for private use, such as mooring of private boats, fishing, boat building, and swimming.
Cleveland Point had many private jetties. As a popular holiday destination, with swimming piers along the shore line. Each pier had a changing shelter and a swimming enclosure. People at that time had a powerful fear of sharks. There were a great number of swimming enclosure along the coast, and one still exists at Amity Point. Today there are few private jetties remaining, except in the canal developments.
DUNWICH
The oldest maritime structure in Queensland is the Dunwich convict causeway constructed in 1827 as part of a military and stores depot servicing the Moreton Bay convict settlement. A photo below from the early 1900s shows Dunwich causeway with several stages of extension out into deeper water, and with a timber jetty at the seaward end. The term “causeway’ describes a structure of stone and earth built up from the seabed. The following notice appeared in the Brisbane Telegraph on 2 September 1884: “It is understood the Government have accepted the tender of Thomas Green, of Ipswich, for the extension off the jetty at Dunwich. The price is £1,450.”
Below is another photo showing the “Otter” supply ship for the Benevolent Asylum, at Dunwich Jetty in the 1890s.Following closure of the convict settlement the causeway continued to serve developments at Dunwich including a Catholic mission, quarantine station, and the Benevolent Asylum. Today the causeway is heritage listed and is an integral part of the barge and ferry landing facilities at Dunwich. (Note the tram tracks along this jetty). Many public jetties had these tracks for trolleys used to carry heavy luggage and goods. These trolleys were pushed along the tracks, but in later years the trolleys were motorised and ran on rubber wheels, so the tracks could be removed.
When the Dunwich jetty was upgraded in the 1970s the pile points were recovered and donated to the museum. It is probable they were made by convicts.
CLEVELAND POINT
The Redlands’ second jetty was also a stone causeway, built on the eastern side of Cleveland Point in 1852, by pastoralists who hoped to make Cleveland Point a major shipping port. This jetty was said to be 750 feet long, but it was damaged by storms and replaced in 1859 by a wooden jetty built by Francis Bigge on the western side of Cleveland Point. Bigge also built a wool store and other buildings, but when it became clear that the port proposal would not succeed, he converted the wool store to a sawmill. This was leased and operated by Taylor Winship, who also ran a ship building business nearby. Winship also built a family home that became the Pier Hotel.
The first Queensland Government funded public jetty in Cleveland was built on the eastern side of Cleveland point in 1866, extending towards Peel Island. It was 1000 ft long. Twenty-one years later, in 1887, The Queensland Government built a new wooden jetty on Cleveland Point, this time on the western (Raby Bay) side. By that time, the old jetty was deteriorating and had been shortened to about half its original length. By the mid 1930s this jetty was falling into a poor state of repair.
REDLAND BAY
The farming township of Redland Bay dates from about 1866. This land auction map of 1888 shows two jetties, one at the end of Bay Street, and a second at Redland Bay Hotel. The first significant jetty in Redland Bay was built at the end of Bay Street in the early 1870s to serve coastal steamers traveling between Brisbane and farming districts in Moreton Bay. This early jetty would have been built by the local farmers to ship their crops.
By 1898, the original Bay Street jetty was worn out, and boats began to use a newer Redland Bay Hotel jetty.
Between 1953 to 1971 the Redland Bay Hotel and jetty were used as the base for flying boat operations. Boats would ferry passengers and luggage out to the aircraft.
By the early 1900s there was a growing need for a new public jetty at Redland Bay, and this notice appeared in the Brisbane Courier on 12 July 1907. “JETTY AT REDLAND BAY – A loan of £100 has been granted by the Government to the Tingalpa Shire Council for the construction of a jetty at Redland Bay”. This new 1907 public jetty was built on the site of the present Redland Bay jetty at Weinman Street.
PEEL ISLAND
There were three jetties on Peel Island. The first was a stone jetty at the south-east corner of Peel Island facing towards Dunwich. Construction started in the 1870s and was completed by aboriginal and prisoner labour in 1893. It supported the quarantine station and lazaret on Peel Island. It was in use until the mid 1950s. Remnants of this jetty can still be seen.
Construction began in 1948 on a new all-weather jetty on the south-western tip of Peel Island, facing Cleveland Point. It was completed in 1956 and became the main access for the lazaret. Sadly, this jetty succumbed to lack of maintenance, and was demolished in the late 1990s.
A third access point to Peel Island was via the patients’ jetty on the north of the island below the lazaret. It was constructed by the patients with materials supplied by the Health Department and was for the exclusive use of the patients and their boats.
AMITY POINT
The first jetty at Amity Point was built in the early 1900s, and opened up this area for holiday makers, and day trippers from Brisbane.
This article is from the Brisbane Courier Monday 11 Dec 1905: “TRIP TO SOUTH PASSAGE – The steamer Beaver, with about 300 excursionists, made, a trip to the South Passage on Saturday afternoon, landing her passengers at the newly-erected jetty, within seven minutes’ walk of the ocean beach. The outing proved to be a very enjoyable one.”
The second jetty at Amity Point was built in the 1960s by Hayles Cruises. By then Amity was well established as a holiday location. It has since been demolished and replaced by a fine aluminum recreational jetty and swimming enclosure.
VICTORIA POINT
The first jetty at Victoria Point was completed in May 1909, and the fruit shipping company of John Burke had exclusive licence to use it. This lasted until the company sold the jetty to the Tingalpa Shire Council in 1922.
CLEVELAND – OYSTER POINT
A jetty was built at Oyster Point in Cleveland in the 1920s. This jetty seemed to be primarily for swimming and recreational use. Unfortunately, I have not located a good photo of this jetty, but we do have Department of Harbour and Marine plans of the jetty in 1955. It was about 1000 ft long and included swimming baths and a diving tower. Students from Cleveland State School would have swimming lessons there.
THORNLANDS – South Street
In 1920 the Thornlands State School committee wrote to the Cleveland Shire Council asking that a causeway and bathing enclosure be built at the end of South Street. The Council voted to spend £10 on the work The South Street jetty, which catered for swimming lessons and general water activities was opened in 1921. It was closed in 1974
BLACKS JETTY
In 1922, William Black built Black’s jetty behind Cassim’s Cleveland Hotel, for his hotel guests. Between 1930 and 1950 Black’s jetty was used as a public jetty and for travel to the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich and the Lazaret on Peel Island. It collapsed in the 1950s, and several passengers waiting for a boat to Peel Island were thrown into the sea. Fortunately Paxton Street jetty nearby was under construction and opened the next year.
WELLINGTON POINT
Lobbing for construction of a jetty at Wellington Point started in the early 1930s, with ongoing arguments reported in the papers about where on the Point it should be located. Some wanted it to the west in sheltered water behind King Island, other wanted it to the north towards Brisbane, but this would require the jetty to be half a mile longer to reach deep water. Finally, it was built on the deepwater side to the east, contrary to this report in the Queensland Times on 11 Sept 1937. “Wellington Point Jetty – The Royal Queensland Yacht Club’s offer to provide material for a 600 ft jetty on the western side of Wellington Point was accepted at the monthly meeting of the Cleveland Shire Council yesterday. The Council agreed to provide the necessary relief labour for construction.”
Wellington Point jetty has been repaired and upgraded a number of times to reach its current state.
To my knowledge this jetty was not used commercially, but it was used by the US Navy gunnery training camp on Wellington Point during WW2.
PAXTON ST
A petition to Cleveland Shire Council in November 1935 lobbied for the construction of a public jetty at Paxton Street, however it took another 15 years to be built.
This jetty was completed about 1951 to replace Black’s jetty. This was one of the biggest jetties in the Redlands and was used by passenger ferries travelling to North Stradbroke Island and Peel Island, and to unload fish at the Cleveland Fish Market. It fell into disrepair in the 1980s and was demolished in 1991 because it was unsafe. This was the last of the big public jetties in Cleveland.
SOUTHERN MORETON BAY ISLANDS (SMBI)
May Jetties were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s to ship produce to market from the island farms.
COOCHIMUDLO ISLAND
There is some controversy over the image below of Moreton’s Jetty at the south west corner of Coochiemudlo. The Coochiemudlo Heritage Society describes this as a photo on the jetty on Coochiemudlo, however other sources describe it as Lamb Island
JETTIES OF THE REDLANDS COAST TODAY
The major ones are the ferry terminals that operate at Toondah harbour, Victoria Point, Redland Bay, Dunwich, One Mile, Russel Island, Maclay Island, Coochiemudlo, Karragarra, and Lamb Island.
There are also the two recreational jetties: at Wellington Point and Amity.
And of course, there are numerous private and marina jetties in the canal developments of Raby Bay and Aquatic Paradise, and two marina jetties at the Little Ships Club at One Mile on North Stradbroke.
Surprisingly, there are still a few private jetties along the coastline. There is one at the end of Beckwith Street in Ormiston, which was originally built by Queensland Cement and Lime Company in the 1960s for dredging coral to make lime. Most of this jetty is now unusable. And there are still a few small private jetties on Cleveland Point, and about twenty-four on the eastern side of Russell Island, including the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron jetty at Caniapa Point.
-written and researched by ROSS BOWER, Redlands Coast Museum (Volunteer)
