Macleay Island History- The second largest of the Southern Moreton Bay Islands
Originally called Jencomercha, it was renamed in 1839 after former Colonial Secretary for NSW and naturalist Alexander Macleay.
However, before the change occurred, the island was also known - and appears on early maps - as Tim Shea's Island. Timothy Shea was an Irish convict who was transported in 1826, arriving in Moreton Bay in July 1827. He was put into a convict timber gang that was sent to Dunwich to work at a small outpost. The islands were a valuable source of timber for the penal settlement and its outposts. Shea escaped from Dunwich In the mid-1830s and lived on Thompson's Point, Macleay Island, for about 14 years.
The Campbell family (see Russell Island), led by patriarch John 'Tinker' Campbell, were the first permanent settlers on Macleay Island, soon leasing or owning almost the entire island.
Tinker Campbell was an early Moreton Bay squatter and entrepreneur who engaged in many business ventures after his arrival in the district in the 1840s.
The Campbells originally established a sugar plantation on Macleay Island and engaged South Sea Island labourers, also known as Kanakas.
Tinker Campbell set up a saltworks on Pininpinin Point. It is likely it was also used as a sugar mill and rumour has it that it was also a front for a rum distillery as many sugar growers around the Bay engaged in this illicit activity at the time. When the family sold some of its holdings in 1871, the South Sea Islander labour force was included in the sale, along with the 40 acres of sugar cane, buildings, sugar mill and salt works.
Tinker Campbell and his sons, Robert, Frederick and John Edwin, were timber-getters, oystermen, fishermen and dugong hunters as well as farmers. They also tried sponge fishing, cultivating castor oil trees and raising angora goats, but none were a commercial success. Their South Sea Island labourers built several structures for the Campbells, including a wharf at Thompson's Point and the saltworks on Cliff Terrace. The wharf was used to ship logs hauled there by bullock teams.
No comments:
Post a Comment