Whilst we drive around you cannot help to see the wondrous bird life here in Dunwich and on North Stradbroke Island. Some of the birds that have been documented include: The Little Penguin, Wandering Albatross, Great cormorant, Black swan, Whistling Kite, White -bellied Sea-Eagle, Galah, Tawny Frogmouth, but most of all the BEAUTIFUL KINGFISHERS. They include: Azure Kingfisher, Forest kingfisher, Red-backed Kingfisher and the Sacred Kingfisher. All in all there are 253 species of bird life here.
The photo you can see is the waterfront at Dunwich. It is very popular in the summer months. We also have the only historical Museum on the Island. It is situated in the heart of Dunwich. In this museum houses a lot of the past implements used by the early settlers as they managed to hunt for food and manufacture the necessary items for every day use. Europeans settled the Island in 1825, establishing a Pilot Station at Amity Point to guide the ships for the Brisbane Penal colony through the South Passage Bar. However 2 years later they established a convict store and depot at Dunwich. Since that time Dunwich has been the site if various European settlements: 1827-1831 convict out station; 1843-1847 Catholic Mission; 1850-1865 Quarantine Station; and Benevolent Institution 1867 to 1947.
The Dunwich Cemetery.
This Cemetery is one of the oldest and most historic in Queensland. This cemetery bears witness to the many phases of institutionalised Dunwich. The oldest graves date back to 1850, the first year of the quarantine station, when a ship arrived with a typhus epidemic aboard. This resulted in the deaths of two Doctors, Ballow and Mitchell, and 26 emigrants. Also 2 Medical Superintendents and staff from the Benevolent Institution are buried there, together with 8426 inmates, most in unmarked graves. A memorial has recently been erected for the inmates. Many Aborigine descendants are also buried there.
Dunwich Public Hall
The Dunwich Public Hall is a good example of colonial architecture. The hall was built in 1913 to serve as the men's mess room. In one sitting four hundred inmates at long tables could take meals. During World War II the centre of the halls wooden floor was cut out and sand bagged to provide an air raid shelter.
St. Mark's Church, Dunwich
St. Mark's Church, which stands on its original site, was built in 1908 following a visit to the Benevolent Institution by the Queensland Governor's wife. She was horrified to find that the inmates had no place of worship, and so donated the money to build the Church.
Institution Building, Dunwich.
Still on the original site, ward 13 has been restored by the Mining Company "Consolidated Rutile Limited" for use as a boardroom. Most of the inmates of the Benevolent Institution were housed in wards. The male wards of various sizes comprised the sleeping quarters for approximately five hundred inmates. There were also separate hospital wards which were serviced by nurses and women who had their own compound on the Northern side of the Dunwich playing field. Water for these compounds was pumped by a gas combustion engine, which drove three plunger water pumps to fill the tanks on the hill behind Dunwich.
Myora Springs
In 1825, three castaway timber getters, Pamphlet, Finnegan and Parsons, cut a tree from Myora Springs to make a canoe to take them back to Sydney. They crossed to the mainland with the intention of walking south to Sydney, but infact travelled north. They ended up on Bribie Island, where John Oxley exploring Moreton Bay found them. Myora Springs was the site of a one day battle between soldiers and Stradbroke Aborigines in 1833.
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