the glass manufacturing houses back in England. James Cook named the area Glass House Bay and was the first European to name this stretch of water.
Matthew Flinders, 1799
On 16 July 1799 Captain Matthew Flinders left Glass House Bay about two miles east of the shore in the Norfolk. He sailed south-west between Moreton Island and the mainland parallel to the southern shore of Bribie Island until spotting an opening in the low western shore. He anchored at 8:15am and transferred with a small crew and Bongaree to a smaller craft. He landed on Bribie Island unaware that it wasn't the mainland and met a small group of Aborigines who had gathered on the beach. Although Bongaree didn't speak the same dialect as the local aborigines the meeting was peaceful until one attempted to remove Flinders' hat. Flinders refused and the Europeans and Bongaree returned to their boat. As they left the man who had tried to remove Flinders' hat threw a spear that missed the small boat and crew. Flinders fired his musket at the men on shore and wounded the man who had thrown the spear. The Aborigines fled the beach. Flinders named the southern shore and site of the confrontation Point Skirmish. There is an area on the modern map marked Skirmish Point but should not be confused with the actual place of the incident which is known as South Point.
Flinders needed to repair leaks in his boat and pulled it ashore some five miles north of the area he had the incident with the locals for those repairs. Once his boat was repaired he explored the mainland side of the passage and scaled Mt. Beerburrum to get a view of the area. He spent 15 days in the region.
It was not until some time later it was determined that this was an island and the changing of the name of the waterway between Bribie Island and the mainland was made at some other point.
Bribie in World War II
Bribie Island fortifications were constructed from 1939 to 1943 as part of the
