Recently a reader (Hi Jenny!) suggested a post about the former suburb of Cribb Island. Initially I dismissed the suggestion because I didn't know too much about it, but a couple of things drew me back to it.
Firstly I knew that the BeeGees had lived there at some stage. Secondly, I remembered that not long after I bought my first car I had a couple of dates with a lovely girl who lived there. When I say a couple I mean literally two! The relationship didn't prosper because it was what we used to call "GI". (GI = geographically impossible!) Cribb Island was north-east of Brisbane's CBD and I lived with my parents south-west of the city. The round trip to her place was 100 km, and that was before we went anywhere else. A bit of a shame really, but it didn't seem to cause any great grief - she turned up at the football with one of my team-mates soon afterwards.
In Cribb Island's earliest days aboriginal groups used the area as a food-gathering place. After white settlers arrived it was purchased by JG Cribb in 1863; he sold a portion of it to James Jackson and that part of it became a farming community known as Jackson's Estate, producing bananas, watermelons and pineapples.
Cribb Island was a suburb that was literally on the shores of Moreton Bay. It was not an actual island, although you could be forgiven for thinking that it was. It was bordered by the Bay, Jacksons Creek and Serpentine Creek, making it the ideal spot for fishermen to build their little shacks like the ones in this 1928 picture.
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(Photo: State Library of Queensland and John Oxley Library; #119341)
During the depression cheap land allowed the relatively small population to increase. The suburb was usually thought of as being in the lower socio-economic band even though it had reasonable facilities for a population that fluctuated between 400 and 900 residents. Many of residents have spoken of the idyllic lifestyle on "Cribby" as children - swimming, fishing and crabbing amongst the regular pastimes.
Cribb Island's location, although handy for fishing, didn't do it any favours. Transport to the area was always problematic because of sand, mud and mangroves and the lack of proper roads. Here's a photograph from around 1929 showing a bogged Model A Ford getting a shove through some sand at Cribb Island.
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(Photo: State Library of Queensland and John Oxley Library; #156215)
And here is the relevant page from a 1974 Refidex street directory showing the then location of Cribb Island.
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(Photo: skyscrapercity.com)
On the eastern side of Serpentine Creek at Luggage Point lay the sewerage outlet for Brisbane. There were often complaints about effluent and odour from local residents and Brisbane City Council has upgraded the facility over the years since.
And it was location that was to cause the demise of Cribb Island. In 1971 the federal government decided to expand Brisbane Airport to allow the arrival and departure of international flights, and that to do this they would need to reclaim the entire suburb of Cribb Island - an area of 5 km by 400 metres with a population of 870.
Between 1971 and 1980 the creeks and waterways were diverted and all residents were relocated. Understandably there were protests about the forced resumption of property. The prices paid for the houses were low and many people were unable to afford to then purchase houses in other suburbs. Many were bitter about the process and I don't know that anything similar could happen today. The fact that there were relatively few residents and that it was a lower socio-economic area probably made the government's task easier, although it still took many years and disrupted many lives. But there is still rancour - there are books and even a play about the "Cribbies" who were turned out of their homes to allow an airport to be built.
Click here for a google Map.
tff
Firstly I knew that the BeeGees had lived there at some stage. Secondly, I remembered that not long after I bought my first car I had a couple of dates with a lovely girl who lived there. When I say a couple I mean literally two! The relationship didn't prosper because it was what we used to call "GI". (GI = geographically impossible!) Cribb Island was north-east of Brisbane's CBD and I lived with my parents south-west of the city. The round trip to her place was 100 km, and that was before we went anywhere else. A bit of a shame really, but it didn't seem to cause any great grief - she turned up at the football with one of my team-mates soon afterwards.
In Cribb Island's earliest days aboriginal groups used the area as a food-gathering place. After white settlers arrived it was purchased by JG Cribb in 1863; he sold a portion of it to James Jackson and that part of it became a farming community known as Jackson's Estate, producing bananas, watermelons and pineapples.
Cribb Island was a suburb that was literally on the shores of Moreton Bay. It was not an actual island, although you could be forgiven for thinking that it was. It was bordered by the Bay, Jacksons Creek and Serpentine Creek, making it the ideal spot for fishermen to build their little shacks like the ones in this 1928 picture.
During the depression cheap land allowed the relatively small population to increase. The suburb was usually thought of as being in the lower socio-economic band even though it had reasonable facilities for a population that fluctuated between 400 and 900 residents. Many of residents have spoken of the idyllic lifestyle on "Cribby" as children - swimming, fishing and crabbing amongst the regular pastimes.
Cribb Island's location, although handy for fishing, didn't do it any favours. Transport to the area was always problematic because of sand, mud and mangroves and the lack of proper roads. Here's a photograph from around 1929 showing a bogged Model A Ford getting a shove through some sand at Cribb Island.
And here is the relevant page from a 1974 Refidex street directory showing the then location of Cribb Island.
On the eastern side of Serpentine Creek at Luggage Point lay the sewerage outlet for Brisbane. There were often complaints about effluent and odour from local residents and Brisbane City Council has upgraded the facility over the years since.
And it was location that was to cause the demise of Cribb Island. In 1971 the federal government decided to expand Brisbane Airport to allow the arrival and departure of international flights, and that to do this they would need to reclaim the entire suburb of Cribb Island - an area of 5 km by 400 metres with a population of 870.
Between 1971 and 1980 the creeks and waterways were diverted and all residents were relocated. Understandably there were protests about the forced resumption of property. The prices paid for the houses were low and many people were unable to afford to then purchase houses in other suburbs. Many were bitter about the process and I don't know that anything similar could happen today. The fact that there were relatively few residents and that it was a lower socio-economic area probably made the government's task easier, although it still took many years and disrupted many lives. But there is still rancour - there are books and even a play about the "Cribbies" who were turned out of their homes to allow an airport to be built.
Click here for a google Map.
tff