Wildlife Australia - Spring 2017

Rich in cultural heritage

More than 1000 cultural and historic sites dot the islands,
waterways and foreshores stretching from southern Moreton
Bay to Nudgee, Bribie Island and Toorbul on the shores of
Pumicestone Passage. They include shell middens, stone
artefacts, scarred trees, burial places such as Myora Aboriginal
Cemetery, story places, ceremonial ‘bora’ rings, quarries and
one of the best preserved examples of an Indigenous stone-
built fish trap in Australia, at Sandstone Point, Toorbul. Many
of these sites are indicative of the history, culture and ways of
life of First Australians and met the requirements for National
Heritage listing as places of national significance. Wallen Wallen
Creek midden, on North Stradbroke Island, has been carbon
dated to 20,560 +/- 250 years before the present. Faunal and
stone artefacts from the excavated shell midden at Sandstone
Point have provided great insight into Aboriginal adaption within
the Bribie–Toorbul region. Other middens are found at Swan
Bay, Polka Point, and Blue Lake on North Stradbroke Island.
Ceremonial bora rings at Bellara, Toorbul and Nudgee represent
important archaeological sites, too. Such places provide
evidence of Aboriginal use of land and natural resources during
the last glacial and present inter-glacial periods, and satisfy
the requirements of World Heritage cultural criterion (v) as an
‘outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land
use, or sea-use, which is representative of a culture or cultures...’

Features that inspire

Moreton Bay’s natural history met the National Heritage
listing criteria of possessing ‘features that inspire, emotionally
move or have other characteristics that evoke a strong human
response’. Few could see dawn breaking over Pumicestone
Passage, humpback whales breaching off the coast of North
Stradbroke, dolphins leaping in the surf, or dugongs grazing on
submerged seagrass meadows without marvelling at Moreton
Bay Marine Park’s wild beauty. Habitats within the marine park
also meet the World Heritage criteria of being ‘a protected
area for species on the IUCN Red List and Endemic Bird Areas
of the World’. Ecosystems within this bioregion are critically
important as refuges for declining populations of at-risk species.
Unfortunately, those environments with the greatest provision

PENAL HISTORY

With the establishment of Moreton Bay Penal Settlement

in 1824, the region’s colonial history began. Moreton Bay’s

islands soon became useful as offshore prisons, psychiatric

hospitals, or quarantined sanatoriums for those afflicted

with contagious diseases. St Helena Island, situated just

8 km north-east of the suburb of Manly, is a fascinating

166 ha reminder of Australia’s harsh convict history. Originally

intended as a quarantine station, the island functioned as a

maximum-security colonial penitentiary from 1867 and was

once considered to be the best prison of its kind in the world.

St Helena Island is now a popular tourist destination for

history buffs and day-trippers.

Peel Island, or Teerk Roo Ra NP, has a similarly gruesome

past. From 1907 to 1959, it operated as a lazaret, or leper

colony. Unfortunate sufferers of Hansen’s disease lived

hopeless lives on the island in conditions that differed little

from those of the prisoners incarcerated on St Helena Island.

Even today, a visit to the site of the lazaret on Peel Island

is a grim reminder of the cruelty sufferers of leprosy once

faced. Cape Moreton Lighthouse, Dunwich Cemetery, and

the Aarhus shipwreck off Flinders Islands, add to the historic

capital within the marine park.

for human services are often those that are most important

to wildlife. In the past, the interests of recreational users of

Moreton Bay Marine Park have sometimes clashed with the

desire of conservation groups to preserve greater areas of

wilderness for biodiversity. Currently, conservation groups are

questioning the environmental impact of redeveloping Toondah

Harbour at Cleveland, and how it will affect the Critically

Endangered eastern curlew and other migratory shorebirds.

At least 1306 species inhabit aquatic or terrestrial environments

within the Park, including the Endangered dugong (Dugong

dugong), loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), the Critically

Endangered grey nurse shark (Carcharia taurus) and 10 species

of migratory wading birds protected under four international

agreements. Six of the migratory wading species are found only

in Pumicestone Passage and Bribie Island National Parks, two

others are endemic to St Helena Island, and another two are found

in Southern Moreton Bay National Park. Although some 300 km

south of the Great Barrier Reef, parts of Moreton Bay Marine Park

also feature an abundance of stony, or scleratinian, corals, with an

estimated 143 species throughout the greater region.

Crucial ecosystem services

A formal review of our mapped findings determined that some

32 Indigenous, historic and natural heritage sites in the region

met the specified criteria for World Heritage listing and 38

for National Heritage listing. There are another eight sites

of equal significance in central-western Moreton Bay;

however, the existing level of protection for these sites

It is estimated that only

around 1000 grey nurse

sharks survive in Australian

waters. Populations are slow-

growing, as females take 9–10

years to reach breeding maturity.

Several locations throughout Moreton Bay

are associated with this species, including

Henderson Rock and Cherub’s Cave off

Moreton Island. Photo: John Turnbull

Approximately 7% of the

original convict-built architecture

constructed from beachrock or

brick on St Helena Island remains.

Photo: Catherine Carey

Huts constructed for the leper colony in 1907. Indigenous

patients on the island lived in even more Spartan

thatched-roof dwellings. Photo: State Library of Qld

COSTING NATURE

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