Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are used by commercial operators who provide seafood to market.
The Port of Brisbane coordinates large traffic along the shipping channel which crosses the northern section of the bay. The bay serves as a safe approach to the airport and reduces noise pollution over the city to the west of the runway. A number of barge, ferry and water-taxi services also travel over the bay.
Moreton Bay was the site of conflict between the Quandamooka people and early European settlers. It contains environmentally significant habitats and large areas of sandbanks. The bay is the only place in Australia where dugong gather into herds. Many parts of the mainland foreshore and southern islands are settled.
The waters of Moreton Bay are relatively calm, being sheltered from large swells by Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Moreton Bay was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction". Moreton Bay is a Pacific Ocean Hope Spot.

History

Early history

Moreton Bay was formed roughly 6000 years ago as the sea level rose and inundated what was then the floodplains of the Brisbane River. Moreton Bay and its islands were inhabited by the Quandamooka people. The indigenous economy was very rich, one of the strongest for its productive yields of edible natural resources on the Australian continent. Of particular importance for the interclan trade and ceremonial life were in particular massive oyster beds, the annual mullet catch, and bunya nut harvesting, on the coast and inland, which led to annual migrations either way to enjoy the abundance of the respective tribal group's territory.
An 1823 account by explorer John Uniacke described the importance of fish, kangaroo and fern-root called dingowa in the diet of the local tribes. His paper, titled 'Natives of Moreton Bay' also has a detailed summary of inter-tribal fights in the Bribie Island region, as witnessed by castaways John Finnegan and Thomas Pamphlett.
In the 1840s, resident white administrators estimated the Aboriginal population of the area to be around 4,000. They were only outnumbered with the influx over the five-year period of 1850–1855 that saw the disembarkation of 3,000 European migrants on their land.

European exploration and settlement

The name Morton's Bay was given by Captain Cook when he passed the area on 15 May 1770, honouring Lord Morton, president of the Royal Society. The spelling Moreton was an error in the first published account of Cook's voyage. Cook gave the name only to the bight formed by the northern end of Stradbroke Island and the eastern side of Moreton Island. He was unaware of the South Passage between the two islands, and did not sail into what is the present Moreton Bay.
Matthew Flinders was the first recorded European to enter the bay in 1799 touching down at the Pumicestone Passage, Redcliffe and Coochiemudlo Island. He was followed by John Oxley who explored the Brisbane River in 1823. On a subsequent visit in the following year, Oxley established the first European settlement in the bay at the present site of Redcliffe.
After Oxley in 1823 came convicts and soldiers. As the South Passage between Moreton and Stradbroke Islands was the shortest shipping route, a depot and pilot station were established at Amity Point in 1825.
European settlement began in earnest after the abandonment of the Redcliffe settlement, and work began on the new convict settlement several miles up the Brisbane River in 1825. Within a couple years, this new settlement was growing rapidly and the number of ships entering the bay was increasing. As a result, the facilities required to service the pilot station at Amity grew, and in 1827 convicts were sent to the island to build a new causeway at Dunwich, remnants of which can still be found on the same site. Within a year the first permanent European settlement at Dunwich had been built. Due to poor weather, smuggling, and conflict with aborigines this convict out-station was difficult to sustain and was closed in 1831.
The first immigrant ship from England, the Artemisia, reached Moreton Bay in December 1848 after a four-month journey. The next year saw the arrival of the carrying more free immigrants to the settlement.
By the 1850s, the region's earliest industry was utilising the bay for the transport of timber. After felling, the logs were dragged or rolled into flooded streams from where they were washed downstream to tidal reaches and bound together into rafts. After the floods had ceased and tides returned to normal, the currents of the bay and sometimes boats were used to delivered the timber north to the Brisbane River or to Dunwich for shipment to Sydney.
The bay was home to the Lightship Rose which provided a permanent navigation aid to passing ships at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The SS John Oxley was another notable boat which temporarily acted as a pilot ship.
Car ferries began crossing the bay to reach North Stradbroke Island in 1947, leading to an increase in tourism on the island. In the 1950s both sand mining and the first land sales at Point Lookout occurred.
On 1 September 2007, four people were killed in a boat accident on the bay, two kilometres from the Pinkenba boat ramp. Ten others were injured.
Moreton Bay has at least 102 shipwrecks of which 26 have their exact location known.

European contact with local Indigenous people

Problems came about when the newcomers displayed a lack of respect for Aboriginal marriage rules, stole bones and other artefacts and desecrated sites important to the Aboriginals.
In 1843, Catholic missionaries chose Dunwich as the site for the first Catholic mission to Australian Aborigines. The existence of the quarantine station on Stradbroke Island from 1850 to the 1870s led to the official discouragement of pastoralism or wider settlement for fear of spreading disease.
Thus the European usage and occupation of Quandamooka in the 19th century was largely restricted to government institutions on small portions on the islands, and with free enterprise business men like the Campbell brothers who ran a saltworks and sugar plantations on Russell and Macleay islands, and the early fishing and oystering businesses in the bay who employed the Aboriginal people of Quandamooka.
Large Aboriginal campsites remained throughout the Moreton Bay region, including on the mainland, until as late as the 1920s.

Geography and natural history

The bay extends some from Caloundra in the north almost to Surfers Paradise in the south. The bay's southern navigation entrance is the Gold Coast Seaway. The bay is across at its widest point.
It is separated from the Coral Sea by a chain of three sand islands: Moreton Island in the north, North Stradbroke Island, and South Stradbroke Island in the south. Tipplers Passage is the main channel on the western coast of South Stradbroke Island. The Gold Coast Seaway is at the southern extent of Moreton Bay, before the Gold Coast Broadwater.
The bay itself contains around 360 islands in total. This includes the populated Russell, Macleay, Lamb and Karragarra Islands collectively known as the Southern Moreton Bay Islands. Together with Coochiemudlo and Garden Island these are bedrock islands. Residential development has also occurred on Coochiemudlo Island and Bribie Island. In the past Peel Island has been used as a sisal plantation, quarantine station, asylum and a leper colony.
Moreton Bay is generally shallow and sandy, though a substantive channel is maintained to allow access to the Port of Brisbane at Fisherman Islands at the mouth of the Brisbane River, for international shipping. Channels in the south of the bay are only rarely deep. Waves penetrate a small way into the bay at its four southern passages. Most waves in the bay are generated by local winds. The tidal range is moderate at in range. Moreton Bay has an average depth of, however parts of the bay are deeper than. This relatively shallow depth lets light filter through to the seafloor, allowing an array of marine plants to grow which support a diverse range of fauna. The bay itself covers and has a catchment area 14 times larger, covering. The waters of the bay are mostly blue in colour. Western parts of the bay are sometimes tinted green from algae, brown from suspended sediments or yellow-brown from humic runoff. The average annual temperature of the sea ranges from in July to in February.
As well as the Brisbane River, the Pimpama River, Logan River, Albert River, Pine River, Tingalpa Creek and the Schulz Canal all empty into Moreton Bay. Within Moreton Bay are the smaller bays of Waterloo Bay, Redland Bay, Raby Bay, Deception Bay and Bramble Bay.
The bay contains a number of island villages such as the settlement on the bayside of Moreton Island, Tangalooma and on North Stradbroke, Dunwich and Amity Point. Prominent coastal communities and mainland suburbs situated on the bay include Deception Bay, Scarborough, Redcliffe, Margate, Woody Point, Brighton, Sandgate, Cleveland, Victoria Point and Redland Bay. Other attractions in the bay include Pumicestone Passage and numerous boat ramps, marinas and jetties, including the Shorncliffe pier.

Sandbanks

Moreton Bay is filled with sandbanks from sand supplied via littoral drift along the coast of Moreton Island. The field of sandbanks extends across the entrance to Moreton Bay and evolved after sea level reached its present position, about 6,500 years ago after the last ice age Between Tangalooma and Skirmish Point on Bribie Island are the Middle Banks, Central Banks and Western Banks. From north of Moreton Island towards Caloundra are the Yulle Road, Spitfire Bank, and the Salamander Bank, amongst others.
Amity Banks are found just west of Amity Point, while the Moreton Banks lie to the west of the southern tip of Moreton Island. These banks can be hazard for marine navigation because they are constantly changing due to tidal currents.
The Middle Banks area close to Moreton Island has been used in the past as a source of sand for large projects such as the nearby Brisbane Airport and port facilities. Past dredging has removed 18 million metres³ and the removal of another 40 million metres³ is planned. Future sand extraction is expected to aid a major shipping channel straightening project.
To ensure the shipping channel remains open, several areas of the bay have been allocated for dredged material dumping sites. These sites have been selected to provide beach nourishment, aiding the natural long shore transport of sand along ocean beaches.