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Bribie Island (Qld.)
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DescriptionThe traditional owners of Bribie Island are the Kabi Kabi and Joondoburri people. Bribie Island was known as Yarun or Yirin which means ‘Hunting Ground’ and the name Ngunda for the people was recorded by some early Europeans to the area. The people were later known as the Joondoburri.
There are not many place names which perpetuate the names of convicts, but Bribie Island is one of them, according to Thomas Welsby. Bribie may have been the man's nickname, although some give his name as Brieby. Some have suggested that he got his name from the way he bought privileges from the authorities. It seems he supplied them with fish. This story of how Bribie Island got its name has not been proven:
He was a basket maker and fish-trapper, and these skills seem to have made him a valued member of both white and Aboriginal societies. He took up with an Aboriginal woman, and when his term of sentence was about to expire ran away to live permanently with her and her tribe on the island. Other convicts found sanctuary there as well. When a convict went missing, it was common to hear it said around Brisbane Town that he was, 'Down with Bribie.' This became' 'Down at Bribie,' and so the island got its name.
"Bribie" was not the first white person to live with the Indigenous people on this island. John Oxley found Thomas Pamphlett and John Finnegan there in 1823 when he came looking for a site for a new convict settlement. They were two of a four-man crew who had sailed out of Sydney Heads to get cedar logs from the Illawarra district, but were blown way off course by a storm. One died at sea, but the three that were left eventually came ashore on Moreton Island. The Aboriginal people befriended them. In the following year, Oxley found the other member of their crew, Richard Parsons, also on Bribie Island.
There are not many place names which perpetuate the names of convicts, but Bribie Island is one of them, according to Thomas Welsby. Bribie may have been the man's nickname, although some give his name as Brieby. Some have suggested that he got his name from the way he bought privileges from the authorities. It seems he supplied them with fish. This story of how Bribie Island got its name has not been proven:
He was a basket maker and fish-trapper, and these skills seem to have made him a valued member of both white and Aboriginal societies. He took up with an Aboriginal woman, and when his term of sentence was about to expire ran away to live permanently with her and her tribe on the island. Other convicts found sanctuary there as well. When a convict went missing, it was common to hear it said around Brisbane Town that he was, 'Down with Bribie.' This became' 'Down at Bribie,' and so the island got its name.
"Bribie" was not the first white person to live with the Indigenous people on this island. John Oxley found Thomas Pamphlett and John Finnegan there in 1823 when he came looking for a site for a new convict settlement. They were two of a four-man crew who had sailed out of Sydney Heads to get cedar logs from the Illawarra district, but were blown way off course by a storm. One died at sea, but the three that were left eventually came ashore on Moreton Island. The Aboriginal people befriended them. In the following year, Oxley found the other member of their crew, Richard Parsons, also on Bribie Island.
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Bribie Island (Qld.). Moreton Bay Our Story, accessed 13/05/2025, https://ourstory.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/nodes/view/3096
