Pre-European use

It is hard to imagine that those soldiers and convicts who set up the original settlement in 1824 encountered a bush that was so thick that a trail had to be blazed from the store hut ( near where Coles is today at Redcliffe ) to the water holes along Humpybong Creek ( near where the Museum stands today ). Today remnants of this early vegetation are preserved in the Johnman-Loveday area of the Botanic Gardens in Henzell Street.

There is likewise little evidence of the people who lived in the Redcliffe area prior to the coming of white people. That there were people here is unquestioned. One of the reasons the settlement was moved was because of hostilities from the aboriginal inhabitants. Yet just twelve months earlier, castaways Pamphlet, Parsons and Finnegan were treated kindly by local aboriginals even though Finnegan had stolen one of their canoes ( and a good quantity of fish inside ) to cross Hays Inlet. A group of around 10 aboriginals followed Finnegan using other canoes but instead of punishing thew castaways they took pity on them and provided food and shelter for around a month. When the group left the peninsula, the aborigines provided plenty of fish and dingowa ( from the fern Blechnum indicum )for their journey.

This will be completed in the near future. The research is interesting but time consuming.