HomepageNews Archives - Page 2 of 63

Brave Dolphins Downed by Ruthless Roosters

The 18th-minute turnaround that saw a Selwyn Cobbo overlap turn into an interception from Herbie Farnworth’s pass, with Marky Mark going the length of the field to open the scoring for the Roosters, was a classic example of how this game went.

At 16-0 down after 2 more Roosters tries, the Dolphins scrapped their way back into the game at 16-10, but the Ruthless Roosters combined huge defence with some brutal finishing to earn their place in the Grand Final at the expense of the Brave Dolphins.

The 52,000 at Suncorp, a vast majority being Dolphins fans, were left stunned by how the Sydney side sucked the wind from the Phins sails, but the Dolphins have plenty to be proud of, after a season when they proved themselves to be worthy premiership challengers.

The Phins reduced the deficit from 36-10 to 36-20 but it was too little, too late.

Sydney Made Their Chances Hurt

The final numbers were much closer than the score. Possession finished 50–50, both sides completed at 83 per cent and the Dolphins actually had more runs, 184 to 166. The difference was what Sydney did when the defensive line cracked.

That danger had been identified in the match preview. The Dolphins needed to control field position, limit Sydney’s kick returns and avoid giving a dangerous attack repeated opportunities. They had survived those moments in their 26–12 win over the Roosters in Round 26; on Friday night, Sydney punished them.

Nawaqanitawase’s opening try was followed by Victor Radley and Daniel Tupou before the half-hour mark, turning a competitive start into a 16–0 deficit.

Isaako Gives Suncorp Hope

Jamayne Isaako’s 33rd-minute try gave the Dolphins a foothold before half-time. When he crossed again barely two minutes after the restart, suddenly it was 16–10 with most of the second half remaining.

For a side that had repeatedly found ways back into games during its eight-match winning run, this was the moment. The Dolphins had absorbed Sydney’s damaging carries, survived the early burst and were one converted try away.

Sydney’s response decided the game.

The Roosters Answer

Robert Toia crossed in the 46th minute, Lindsay Collins followed eight minutes later and Nawaqanitawase added his second before Sam Walker went through in the 66th. In a little over 20 minutes, a six-point game had become 36–10.

It wasn’t simply a matter of Sydney having more football. The Roosters finished with 1,781 run metres to 1,554, 600 post-contact metres to 512 and eight line breaks to four. The Dolphins were getting less return from comparable possession, while Sydney were brutally efficient when space appeared.

Where The Game Was Won

That also made Isaiya Katoa’s job harder than it had been against the Warriors. In Auckland, his long kicking game helped the Dolphins patiently work their way back from eight points down. This time, every comeback brought another Sydney response and the scoreboard increasingly forced the Dolphins to chase the game.

The Roosters kicked for 632 metres to 593 and generated 215 kick-return metres to the Dolphins’ 155. They didn’t dominate every measure, but they won enough of the territorial exchanges and were far more damaging once they got the Dolphins’ defence moving.

The 45 missed tackles by the Dolphins, compared with Sydney’s 33, were another indication of the physical toll.

Isaako Passes 300

There was still a significant personal milestone on a difficult night. Isaako entered the preliminary final on 298 points for the season, and his conversion after his first try took him beyond 300.

He finished with two tries and two conversions, his second try briefly bringing the Dolphins within six before Sydney took the game away.

They Kept Coming

Even at 36–10, the Dolphins kept playing. Kulikefu Finefeuiaki crossed in the 74th minute before a Cobbo line break helped create Farnworth’s try two minutes later, with Isaako’s conversion completing the 36–20 scoreline.

It was too late to change the result, but it was consistent with a side that had spent the back end of the season refusing to disappear from contests.

A Season That Changed Expectations

The Dolphins entered Friday night on an eight-game winning streak at Suncorp and playing their first preliminary final, just four seasons after joining the NRL. Their first finals campaign ends one victory short of a Grand Final, beaten by a Roosters side that was simply more clinical when the match presented its decisive moments.

After the game, City of Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery said the disappointment of the loss had not diminished what the Dolphins had achieved.

“It just wasn’t our night tonight, but we are so incredibly proud of the boys and their Phin-enomal achievement this year.
“The Dolphins’ journey to this moment has inspired not just the people of our City of Moreton Bay, but the entire NRL.”

For the Dolphins, 2026 changed the measure of what constitutes success. September is no longer somewhere they are trying to reach. It also changed expectations about what might come next.

Flannery said the finals run had “galvanised the City of Moreton Bay” and added: “Now we dare to dream what’s possible in 2027.”

They have shown they belong there.

Published 25-September-2026

New 2.4km Pathway Will Improve Access to Caboolture–Wamuran Rail Trail

Photo Credit: GoogleMaps

A new 2.4km pathway will connect Pumicestone Road with the Caboolture–Wamuran Rail Trail, adding another walking and cycling link to a route built along a railway corridor that once carried produce from the district towards Brisbane.

City of Moreton Bay has included construction of the pathway in its 2026–27 program for Caboolture, with the new link to run between Pumicestone Road and the existing rail trail on Beerburrum Road.

At 2.4km, the connection will be almost a quarter of the length of the 10.5km Caboolture–Wamuran trail itself.

A New Way Into the Trail

The existing trail starts on Beerburrum Road in Caboolture and follows the former railway corridor west to Atwood Street in Wamuran.

Mostly separated from roads and with relatively gentle grades, it has become an established route for walkers and cyclists, linking the more urban Caboolture end with the rural landscape towards Wamuran.

The new pathway will improve access from the Pumicestone Road side of Caboolture, rather than extend the rail trail beyond its existing endpoints.

It also appears in the Queensland Government’s current Transport and Roads Investment Program as a project to upgrade and construct a new pathway between Pumicestone Road and the Wamuran rail trail head.

State planning is underway through the Safer Roads, Better Transport Initiative, although the State program does not nominate procurement or construction dates. Council’s 2026–27 budget goes further, listing construction of the 2.4km connection among its key projects for Division 3.

From Railway Line to Walking and Cycling Route

The pathway will connect into a corridor with more than a century of local transport history.

The railway through Wamuran opened in 1909, giving farmers better access to Brisbane markets at a time when fruit growing, particularly bananas, was important to the district. The line was later extended through to Kilcoy.

Council’s original rail trail concept deliberately drew on that history. The project was designed around the old railway alignment, with bridges, culverts and interpretive signage helping retain some of the character of the former line.

The railway west of Wamuran was closed in 1964, while the remaining Wamuran section survived for several more decades before finally closing.

Decades later, the old corridor found another use. The Caboolture–Wamuran Rail Trail was developed as a 10.5km shared pathway, with shelters, seating, drinking fountains, wayfinding and other facilities incorporated along the route.

Its first stage was already open by 2019, when work was continuing on the remaining sections.

Another Crossing Is Changing Too

The Pumicestone Road connection isn’t the only work planned around the trail in Caboolture.

Council is also upgrading the Henzell Road, Toohey Street and Watt Street intersection, close to where the rail trail crosses Henzell Road.

The existing roundabout will be replaced with traffic lights, while the approaches will be widened to provide additional turning lanes. New on-road bike lanes, wider footpaths and pedestrian crossings are also planned, including safer links to the rail trail.

Service relocations have already started and are scheduled to finish in early 2027. Construction of the intersection upgrade is then expected to begin in 2027, with Council’s project timeline extending into 2028.

Taken together, the projects shift the focus from building the Caboolture–Wamuran trail itself to improving how people reach it and move through its Caboolture end.

For a route that began life carrying trains through the district, that marks another chapter in how the old corridor is being used to connect Caboolture.

Updated 20-September-2026

Dolphins Face Their Biggest Test Yet With Grand Final Place on the Line

The Dolphins have beaten the Sydney Roosters twice this season. On Friday night, that will count for something — but nowhere near as much as it might appear.

Their 48–10 demolition of Sydney at Suncorp Stadium in June came deep in the Origin period, with the Dolphins missing five representative players and the Roosters without seven.

The second meeting is harder to dismiss.

At Allianz Stadium in Round 26, the Dolphins won 26–12 against a much stronger Roosters side, then defended desperately after Tom Flegler and Morgan Knowles were sent to the sin bin seven minutes apart. For a period, they were defending with 11 men.

Now comes the version that matters most.

A sold-out Suncorp Stadium will host the Dolphins’ first preliminary final on Friday night, with the winner advancing to the NRL Grand Final. The Dolphins arrive rested after beating the Warriors 26–16 in Auckland and earning a week off. Sydney arrive battle-hardened after dismantling Cronulla 46–10.

And this time, Sam Walker is back.

A Different Roosters Problem

Walker’s return from syndesmosis surgery gives Sydney something they did not have against Cronulla: the combination of Walker and Daly Cherry-Evans in the halves.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson says Walker is 100 per cent ready. For the Dolphins, the more interesting football question is how much work they can make him do.

They have the size and movement on their edges to make that important. Herbie Farnworth can turn a seemingly harmless shift into a line break, Kulikefu Finefeuiaki brings power closer to the ruck, while Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow can appear almost anywhere once a defensive line has been distorted.

If Walker is going to play, the Dolphins have every reason to make him part of the contest.

His return also changes what happens at the other end. Walker and Cherry-Evans give Sydney two accomplished kickers and organisers around James Tedesco, who remains capable of turning a poor end to a Dolphins set into an attacking opportunity before the defensive line has settled.

Tedesco gave the Sharks a reminder last weekend, producing 161 run metres and 11 tackle breaks as the Roosters piled on five second-half tries.

That makes this as much a battle for field position as a battle for points.

Katoa Doesn’t Need to Chase the Game

Isaiya Katoa’s performance against the Warriors offered perhaps the clearest clue to what the Dolphins need from him on Friday.

They trailed 16–8 after 52 minutes, but Katoa did not try to rescue the game with increasingly ambitious plays. Instead, his long kicking game began turning the Warriors’ big forwards around and the Dolphins gradually shifted the match onto their terms.

Farnworth crossed in the 60th minute. Tabuai-Fidow followed six minutes later. Jack Bostock finished it in the 74th.

That patience may be even more important against Sydney.

The temptation in a sold-out stadium, with a Grand Final one victory away, will be to chase the spectacular. Yet the Dolphins already possess enough strike through Tabuai-Fidow, Farnworth, Selwyn Cobbo, Bostock and Jamayne Isaako that Katoa and Kodi Nikorima do not have to manufacture something on every possession. Their job is to keep giving those players good football.

A long kick that traps Sydney deep may matter as much as a cut-out pass. A repeat set may be worth more than an early offload. Denying Tedesco clean kick returns could become one of the most important defensive acts of the night.

ISAAKO ON THE BRINK OF 300

PRELIMINARY FINAL

Jamayne Isaako. Photo credit: Sampajanna/Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Jamayne Isaako enters the preliminary final on 298 points for the 2026 season — just two points short of 300.

A single conversion or penalty goal would take the Dolphins winger to the milestone.

The Warning Inside That 26–12 Win

The Dolphins should take enormous confidence from what happened at Allianz Stadium last month. They should also take a warning from it.

They had built a 26–6 lead before Flegler was sent to the sin bin in the 61st minute after repeated Dolphins infringements. Seven minutes later, Knowles followed him for a hip-drop tackle on Siua Wong.

Sydney scored almost immediately to make it 26–12, but what followed was extraordinary scramble defence.

Cobbo raced back to help shut down a Roosters break. Tabuai-Fidow stopped Hugo Savala close to the line. With the game almost over, Bostock and Katoa combined to bundle Tommy Talau into touch.

It was one of the Dolphins’ strongest defensive statements of the season.

It is also something they cannot afford to rely upon happening again.

Sydney now bring Walker back into a side that has just scored 46 points in an elimination final. Give that attack repeated possession, favourable field position or a numerical advantage and the Dolphins risk turning a game they can control into one they have to survive.

Controlled aggression matters here. So does patience.

Eighty Minutes From Somewhere They Have Never Been

There is plenty of history surrounding Friday night, but the Dolphins do not need to play the occasion.

They have won eight consecutive matches and eight straight at Suncorp Stadium. Kristian Woolf has named the same 17 that won in Auckland, while the week off has allowed a side entering unfamiliar territory to prepare for it without first having to survive another elimination game.

Sydney bring a very different kind of comfort: finals experience and a team that has just rediscovered its attacking rhythm at precisely the right time.

None of that changes the central equation.

The Dolphins have already shown they can hurt the Roosters with the ball. In Sydney last month, they showed they can withstand them when a match turns ugly. Against the Warriors, they showed something else again: the composure to be eight points down in a final, resist the urge to panic and gradually take the game away from their opponents.

Friday night asks them to bring all three versions together.

Do that for 80 minutes and the next game in Dolphins history will be a Grand Final.

Match Details

Dolphins v Roosters

Friday 25 September 2026, 7:50pm AEST, Suncorp Stadium.

Published 25-August-2026

Glasgow Gold for Caboolture’s Calab Law, Lakeisha Patterson and Jye Dixon

Caboolture has plenty to celebrate after Calab Law, Lakeisha Patterson and Jye Dixon all returned from the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with gold medals.

The trio were among the Moreton Bay athletes recognised on 23 September after the region’s contingent won 14 medals across swimming, para swimming, athletics and boxing. Together, the group collected 12 gold medals, one silver and one bronze.

Law, whose hometown is Caboolture and who attended Morayfield State High School, added Commonwealth champion to a growing international résumé. The 22-year-old reached the 200m semi-finals in Glasgow before helping Australia win the men’s 4x100m relay.

His relay success followed a national record in 2025, when he was part of the Australian team that ran 37.87 seconds in Sydney. Law has also represented Australia at the Paris Olympics and World Championships.

Patterson Returns To The Top of The Podium

Caboolture resident Lakeisha Patterson claimed gold in the women’s 100m freestyle S9, continuing a Commonwealth Games career that began in Glasgow 12 years earlier. Patterson first competed at the Games in 2014, winning bronze in the 100m freestyle S8. She followed that result with two gold medals at the Gold Coast Games in 2018 before winning again in Glasgow in 2026.

Her early swimming years also passed through the local area, including training at Bribie Island and an association with Lawnton Swim Club. Patterson lives in Caboolture and has gone on to build a career that includes Paralympic and world championship medals. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics she won silver in the women’s 400m freestyle S9, before taking gold in the same event at the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore.

Caboolture-Born Dixon Takes Boxing Gold

Boxer Jye Dixon was born in Caboolture and grew up in Brendale, where his sporting career developed through All Star Boxing Academy. Dixon has trained with the academy since the age of 12 and entered Glasgow with eight Queensland titles and seven Australian titles already to his name. He returned as Commonwealth champion after winning gold in the 55kg division.

Commonwealth Games athletes — Photo Credit: CrCathTonks/Facebook

The 21-year-old was also selected for a Tier 2 Scholarship through the Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s 2026 Scholarship and Mentoring Program. Ms Cath Tonks said Dixon had previously received an Individual Achievement Grant.

Law, Patterson and Dixon were recognised alongside fellow Moreton Bay competitors following the Games, with Mr Peter Flannery praising the dedication required to represent Australia internationally.

Their results give the Caboolture area three fresh Commonwealth gold medals across three different sports — athletics, para swimming and boxing — with each athlete taking a different local pathway to the international stage.

Published 23-September-2026

Woorim Beach Community Pushes for Public Shark Bite Kits

Photo Credit: Bite Aid - Community SBK/Instagram

Woorim Beach families, surfers and other beachgoers could gain public access to emergency bleeding-control equipment under a community-funded shark bite kit proposal being pursued by Renee Zmuda.

Renee has asked Moreton Bay City Council for permission to mount the kits on existing posts along Woorim Beach, with no funding requested.

Community fundraising would cover the initial purchase of the equipment and all replacement supplies. Renee has also proposed taking responsibility for regular checks and upkeep through a formal memorandum of understanding.

The proposal is aimed at making bleeding-control equipment accessible across a beach used by families, surfers, fishers, campers and swimmers, including people recreating beyond the patrolled area.

Emergency Equipment for Woorim Beach Users

The shark bite kits would contain tourniquets, heavy pressure bandages, trauma shears and instruction cards for people without prior training.

They are intended to provide equipment for severe bleeding following shark bites or other marine trauma.

Renee acknowledged concerns that installing kits at unpatrolled access paths could be seen as encouraging swimming outside the flagged area. However, she told council beachgoers already use kilometres of the coastline beyond the patrol zone.

Families and surfers regularly use those areas, while other visitors travel further along the beach to camp, fish and swim.

The proposal therefore focuses on placing emergency equipment where people are already recreating rather than limiting access to the area around the patrol tower.

Similar shark bite kits have been approved at Coogee and Maroubra in New South Wales. After their installation, bystanders used one of the kits to apply a tourniquet to a shark bite victim.

community safety — Photo Credit: Bite Aid – Community SBK/Instagram

Community Campaign Follows Charlize’s Death

The Woorim Beach proposal follows the death of Renee’s daughter, Charlize Zmuda, who was attacked by a shark at the beach on 3 February 2025.

Charlize had a longstanding connection to the local beach community. She began as a nipper with Bribie Island Surf Lifesaving Club and later became a patrol vice-captain, volunteering her time at Woorim Beach.

Emergency services were called to the unpatrolled beach shortly before 5pm following the attack, but the 17-year-old could not be saved.

The Fifth Avenue beach access point at Woorim Beach is now known as Charlize’s Place.

Community support following her death was also reflected in a fundraiser established for the Zmuda family, which attracted 1,056 donors and raised $79,647.

Charlize Zmuda — *Photo Credit: GoFundMe*

Existing Shark Controls Reviewed

Coroner Carol Lee later determined Charlize died from injuries to her right upper limb consistent with a bull shark attack.

The coronial investigation examined shark-control measures operating at Woorim Beach. At the time of the attack, 18 drumlines were positioned offshore and had been serviced two days earlier.

Shark nets were not used because strong tidal currents could interfere with their operation, while drone patrols had also operated at Woorim Beach during the summer period before the attack.

The coroner found the existing shark-risk mitigation framework appropriate and determined an inquest was not required because there was no unresolved conflict of evidence or suspicious circumstance.

The current proposal instead centres on access to emergency bleeding-control equipment for people already using Woorim Beach.

Renee has asked the authorities to assign an officer to walk the beach with the team and approve suitable locations for the community-funded kits.

Published 18-September-2026

After 16 Years, Long-Awaited Reunion Brings Caboolture Family Back Together

For years, birthdays in the Burgess family have travelled down phone lines. Christmas greetings have crossed state borders, while Facebook messages have helped fill the long spaces between visits. With relatives now spread from Caboolture and Brisbane to South Australia and Canada, being together has become something far less ordinary.

For Barbara Burgess, a retired paediatric nurse from Top Camp near Toowoomba, staying close has often meant hearing familiar voices rather than seeing familiar faces. A long-awaited reunion is now taking shape after Barbara was selected for Tahbilk’s inaugural Long Lost Lunch, an initiative created to bring together an Australian family separated by distance and circumstance.

For the Burgess family, it offers something they have struggled to arrange for years: everyone in the same room again.

Birthdays kept the family close

Barbara’s relatives have lived far apart for decades, with family members scattered across Queensland, South Australia and Canada. Caboolture is among the Queensland communities where members of the extended family now live.

Distance gradually changed what family occasions looked like. Barbara and her cousin Victor built their own birthday tradition, calling each other every year even when they could not celebrate together.

“I ring my cousin Victor for his birthday, and he rings me for mine,” Barbara said.

Christmas brought another round of calls, while Facebook helped bridge the months between them. The family remained connected, but the small rituals also became reminders of how rarely everyone could gather in person.

The last major family reunion described in Barbara’s story took place in January 2010 for her Uncle Victor’s 80th birthday. There were Coffin Bay oysters, home-cooked food and a game of pool that ended with Barbara’s cousins teaching her a few Hungarian phrases.

Food has always carried its own language in the family. Barbara remembers Uncle Victor joking that she was like her father, except she “didn’t eat enough”, while another of his sayings summed up the household attitude to hospitality: “You don’t have to be hungry to eat.”

Another gathering of the wider family never quite came together. Illness, financial pressure and the challenge of coordinating relatives living hundreds or thousands of kilometres apart kept pushing the next reunion further away.

Family roots stretched from Hungary to the outback

Barbara’s father, Janos, known as John, came to Australia from Hungary in 1951 after fleeing Communist rule. He later worked as a miner at Radium Hill in South Australia, where he met Barbara’s mother, Connie, who had left a dairy farm near Toowoomba to work as a nurse with the Australian Inland Mission.

John later searched for opal at Andamooka, spending periods digging by hand and sleeping in the back of a ute. His determination became part of the family story Barbara grew up hearing.

Her own childhood memories are less about hardship than the ordinary pleasures of being together. Birthdays meant party hats, a house full of friends and plenty of food, while rain could become an excuse for fun.

Barbara recalled her father raising the dump truck when it rained so she and her brother Peter could swim in the water that collected there. Memories like those have remained part of the family history long after Barbara and Peter lost their parents in a plane crash while they were still children.

Nursing became another thread linking the generations. Barbara eventually worked as a paediatric nurse, while her family says nursing and midwifery have been represented across four generations.

Illness made distance harder to bridge

As the years passed, visiting relatives became increasingly difficult for Barbara. A long period of poor health brought medical expenses and made interstate travel harder to manage.

Barbara later attributed her symptoms to mould exposure after spending years looking for an explanation. Whatever the cause, the financial and physical strain made family visits more difficult.

“Catching up with family is just too difficult,” Barbara said.

Her experience comes as regular face-to-face contact has declined more broadly across Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 53 per cent of Australians aged 15 and over had in-person contact with family or friends outside their household at least once a week in 2025, compared with 68 per cent in 2019.

For families living across several states, keeping close can involve far more than finding a free weekend. Travel costs, health and distance can turn a simple family meal into something that takes years to organise.

A story Tahbilk says stayed with them

Barbara’s story was selected after Tahbilk invited families to share why they had become separated and what bringing them together would mean.

Fourth-generation Tahbilk custodian Alister Purbrick said Barbara’s family stood out because of its history of migration, nursing and resilience, as well as the circumstances that had kept relatives apart.

“When we read Barbara’s story we knew immediately she was our family,” Purbrick said.

He said the combination of her father’s journey from Hungary, the generations of nurses in the family and the years spent apart captured the kind of story the Long Lost Lunch had been created to recognise.

Saroo Brierley, who is due to host the gathering, also found something familiar in Barbara’s story. Brierley was separated from his birth family in India as a child, later grew up in Australia and eventually reunited with his mother after decades apart, a story later told in the film Lion.

“Barbara’s story moved me,” Brierley said. He pointed to the family’s resilience, the distance between relatives and the years spent wanting to be together again.

One table after years of phone calls

Tahbilk’s Long Lost Lunch is planned for its estate at Nagambie in Victoria in October. The selected family will receive return travel to Victoria, transfers, accommodation and a hosted lunch, giving relatives who have spent years speaking across distance the chance to finally meet around one table.

The occasion carries echoes of the family gatherings Barbara remembers from childhood: food to share, relatives close by and no need for a phone call to bridge the distance.

“It’s so exciting to think we’ll finally be together at Tahbilk Estate, sharing great food, wine and of course celebrating our love for each other,” she said.

Published 16-Sept-2026

Bribie Before the Bridge: Crime, Convicts and an Island Beyond the Law

SS Porpoise at Bongaree jetty in 1924, when boats provided Bribie Island’s vital connection with the mainland. Photo Credit: State Library of Queensland, Campbell Family Photograph Albums, APA-114

Before Bribie Island had its own permanent police presence, law enforcement could mean calling for officers from Caboolture — and waiting for them to cross the water.

For decades, the water separating Bribie from the mainland helped shape an image of an island beyond easy reach of authority — a place of holiday camps, temporary policing and, according to legend, escaped convicts.

The isolation was real. Some of the stories that grew around it are harder to prove.

The most enduring concerns the island’s own name. Tradition links “Bribie” or “Breiby” to a convict basket-maker, while other stories tell of escaped prisoners finding refuge on the island.

The surviving records paint a more complicated picture.

BRIBIE LEGENDS: WHAT THE RECORDS SAY

THE CONVICT CALLED “BRIBIE”

SUPPORTED BUT UNCERTAIN

Tom Petrie recalled a prisoner known as “Bribie, the basket maker” in reminiscences published in 1904. Thomas Welsby later developed the story but could not establish the man’s identity. Bribie Island Historical Society research has also found no convincing match in Moreton Bay convict registers.

THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME

UNPROVEN

An official letter from August 1836 already refers to “Breiby’s Island”. Queensland’s place-name record says the name was “probably derived” from a convict called Bribie or Breiby, while another explanation links it to an Aboriginal word rendered as Boorabee. The precise origin remains uncertain.

CONVICTS ON BRIBIE

DOCUMENTED

Former convicts Thomas Pamphlett and John Finnegan were encountered at Point Skirmish by explorer John Oxley in 1823 after being shipwrecked. They were not fugitives from the Moreton Bay penal settlement, which had not yet been established.

AN ISLAND REFUGE FOR ESCAPEES

ORAL TRADITION / FOLKLORE

Later stories tell of escaped prisoners reaching Bribie or disappearing “down with Bribie”, but the records located do not establish Bribie as a regular refuge for escaped convicts.

Whatever the truth behind the convict stories, Bribie’s isolation created a much more practical problem once large numbers of holidaymakers began arriving: who was going to police them?

Read: Seven Margate Beach Picnic Shelters Set for Renewal

When Bribie needed a Christmas policeman

In December 1920, a correspondent to The Brisbane Courier estimated about 2,000 campers would spend Christmas on the island and called for a constable to be stationed there for a fortnight. Belongings, the correspondent complained, were disappearing from unattended tents.

By Christmas 1924, a constable was on Bribie as about 1,000 visitors occupied 170 tents. Contemporary reporting credited the officer with keeping the rowdier element under control.

It was policing dictated partly by geography and partly by the calendar. Bribie’s permanent population remained small while steamships could suddenly deposit hundreds of holidaymakers at Bongaree.

*Bribie Jetty, showing part of Bongaree Township*, 1923. Photo Credit: City of Moreton Bay – Our Story CLPC-P1238

Fourteen hours waiting for police

A temporary police station operated from a cottage at 4 Third Avenue, Bongaree, during the Second World War, but closed after the war.

The consequences of that isolation became particularly clear in 1946.

In August that year, 56-year-old fisherman William Milverton was found dead in Toorbul Street at about 9pm. Caboolture police were contacted, but officers did not reach the island by boat until about 10.30 the following morning.

A post-mortem reportedly found no suspicious circumstances, but the roughly 14-hour wait showed the practical problem facing an island without permanent police.

Another push for permanent policing followed a brawl in 1947. According to local historical research drawing on contemporary reporting, police considered Bribie’s residents generally law-abiding.

The distinction is important: Bribie was difficult to police. That did not necessarily make it lawless.

A permanent presence at last

Permanent policing finally arrived in December 1951, when a station was established in the Third Avenue cottage and a lock-up was built behind it.

Queensland parliamentary records from September 1952 support that timeline, recording that an acting sergeant had been transferred to the new station almost a year earlier.

By then Bribie was changing. Steamships had established Bongaree as a major holiday destination, car ferries brought vehicles across Pumicestone Passage and permanent settlement was growing.

Then, on 19 October 1963, the Bribie Island Bridge opened.

The island was no longer dependent on boats and ferries for everyday access to the mainland. For police and emergency services, as well as residents and visitors, the permanent road connection removed one of the geographical obstacles that had defined life on Bribie.

Read: Woody Point Beach Project Moves Into the Next Stage

What the records say — and what they don’t

Bribie’s isolation undoubtedly helped create its reputation, but the documentary record is less sensational than the folklore.

There were stolen belongings, rowdy holidaymakers and long waits for mainland police. There was also a mysterious convict basket-maker whose possible connection to the island’s name has never been conclusively established.

What the records do not demonstrate is a Bribie routinely beyond the law or established as a sanctuary for escaped convicts.

Even the later “Three Ds” reputation sometimes attached to old Bribie remains unproven without a reliable early source showing when, and by whom, the expression was actually used.

Before the bridge, the water separating Bribie from the mainland created genuine isolation — and left plenty of room for stories to cross the passage.

Published 16-September-2026

A Police Cell for a Bedroom: Inside Law and Order in Early Caboolture

Photo Credit: City of Moreton Bay Our Story

Caboolture’s early police had a fairly basic problem: there wasn’t much of a police station. The little timber building had just four rooms. Two were cells, but one doubled as a constable’s bedroom. Part of the kitchen became the Court of Petty Sessions.

From this unlikely base, police were expected to keep order across a district of farms, timber country and scattered settlements.

The cases that survive from those years are equally revealing: a watch and money disappearing at a local hotel, a railway station robbed of its takings, and offences that took the business of policing beyond the township.

Together, they offer a glimpse of what could go wrong in everyday Caboolture more than a century ago.

Before Caboolture Had a Proper Police Station

The government was considering a police presence in Caboolture by the end of 1869. In March 1870, Police Commissioner David Thompson Seymour was corresponding about sending a portable lock-up from Brisbane.

Queensland Police records date policing in Caboolture to 1871. Historical police annual reports cited by the Caboolture Historical Village record a station operating by 1872, staffed by a Senior Constable and a Constable.

Among the earliest officers identified in surviving local records are Sergeant Walker, registered number 77, and Senior Constable Thomas Robinson, number 316.

The available digitised records do not establish with certainty which man was Caboolture’s first individual policeman. What they do show is that a police presence was being planned by 1869–70 and a two-man station was operating by 1872.

Those officers had plenty of ground to cover.

Caboolture was still a small settlement surrounded by timber country and rural holdings. Even in 1891, the township had only about 248 residents.

Then the railway arrived in 1888, bringing passengers, freight, mail and goods through Caboolture — and another part of the district for police to watch.

A Watch, Half a Sovereign and a Hotel

One case began at Caboolture’s Royal Hotel in January 1889.

A man was accused of stealing a watch and half a sovereign from another man, with hotel barman George Bushell giving evidence in the case.

The matter progressed beyond the local Police Court. The accused was convicted before Judge Noel and sentenced to three years’ penal servitude. He later petitioned the Colonial Secretary maintaining his innocence.

By then, Caboolture’s police accommodation was also showing its age. In August 1889, 23 residents petitioned the government for a proper courthouse.

Tenders for new police and court facilities followed in 1891, with James Campbell Thompson securing the contract. Police, court and residential buildings would become part of the King Street government precinct.

From left to right – Constable’s residence, courtroom, Clerk of Petty Sessions office. Horse stables were at the rear. The dark building in the background is the post office, and the door at the rear is the telephone exchange. The post office residence is beyond the post office. The Tree of Knowledge is in the top right of the photograph. | Photo Credit: City of Moreton Bay Our Story

Then Someone Robbed the Railway

On the night of 30 April 1894, Beerburrum railway station, about eight miles from Caboolture according to the Police Gazette, was broken into.

A cashbag containing between £60 and £70, along with £2 3s 3d in station cash, disappeared.

The offence appeared in the Queensland Police Gazette, which circulated details of the robbery and information about a person who had come under suspicion. The surviving entry records suspicion, not a conviction.

More than 30 years later, Beerburrum was again the setting for a case heard at Caboolture.

In September 1926, pineapple farmer Charles Levy pleaded guilty in the Caboolture Police Court to breaking into a Lands Department depot and stealing clothing valued at £35. Contemporary reports said he had been driving home while heavily intoxicated when the offence occurred. He was committed to the Brisbane Supreme Court for sentence.

These were not spectacular crimes. They revolved around the places where people actually lived and worked — hotels, farms, government buildings and railway stations.

The Lock-Up That Survived

As Caboolture grew, so did its police and court facilities.

Early photographs show police, court and residential buildings along King Street, while a separate courthouse was eventually built in 1950.

One piece of the old arrangement survives.

Caboolture’s two-cell lock-up, once behind the police station, was eventually moved to the Caboolture Historical Village.

It is easier to understand how small it is when you picture the district it once served: a few hundred people in town, farms and timber country beyond it, money moving along a new railway — and a constable sleeping in a room that could otherwise hold a prisoner.

Published 14-Sept-2026

Cancer Experience Changes Patient Care for Caboolture Anaesthetist Steven Hocken

Photo Credit: Metro North Health

A Caboolture doctor who was told his metastatic bowel cancer was inoperable has returned to anaesthetic practice after intensive treatment and specialist training, carrying lessons from his own experience as a patient into his clinical work.

From Anaesthetist To Patient

Dr Steven Hocken was an anaesthetic registrar preparing for his final specialist examinations when several months of pain led to an urgent colonoscopy.

Gastroenterologist Dr Adrian Swaine performed the procedure at Redcliffe Hospital, with Hocken choosing to remain awake. He saw the large tumour on the screen before further testing confirmed metastatic bowel cancer.

Hocken was 35 when colorectal surgeon Dr Andrew Riddell provided the first surgical consultation. At that stage, the cancer was considered inoperable and Hocken was told he may have about three years to live.

The diagnosis shifted him from treating patients to experiencing healthcare from the other side. He later described the experience as changing aspects of his own practice, including the way he handles pain crises, prepares patients for major surgery and considers their perspective during treatment.

Treatment Changes The Surgical Outlook

Hocken’s care involved specialists across Metro North Hospital and Health Service in gastroenterology, colorectal surgery and oncology.

His treatment was aggressive because of his young age. Associate Professor Melissa Eastgate, Executive Director Cancer Care at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, was his medical oncologist and provided chemotherapy and immunotherapy with the RBWH oncology team.

After an intensive treatment period that also involved significant complications, Hocken responded strongly enough to chemotherapy for surgery to become possible.

Riddell, who had initially advised that the cancer could not be operated on, later performed an ultra-low anterior resection at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

By June 2026, Hocken’s metastases had disappeared, his stoma had been reversed about a year earlier and he had completed his specialist training.

By August, almost two years had passed since the operation and follow-up scans continued to show no recurrence. The possibility of the cancer returning remains, with Riddell noting that patients are followed for five years.

Caboolture Doctor Returns To Practice

By June 2026, Hocken was working full-time as an Anaesthetic Consultant at Caboolture Hospital.

His healthcare career had begun well before medicine. He initially worked as an Assistant-in-Nursing before becoming an intensive care nurse and later pursuing medicine and anaesthetics.

During specialist training, Hocken rotated through seven hospitals. Caboolture stood out to him for the way its team worked together and cared for colleagues, and returning there after completing his training had always been part of his plan.

He now intends to continue working as an anaesthetist in Caboolture for the foreseeable future.

Published 9-September-2026

Get Up Close with Native Wildlife at Caboolture Historical Village

Photo Credit: Caboolture Historical Village/ Facebook

Looking for a brilliant way to keep the kids entertained these holidays without breaking the bank? Families heading down to the Caboolture Historical Village can soon enjoy a hands-on encounter with native Australian wildlife.

Event Schedule and Timing

*Photo Credit:* *Caboolture Historical Village/ Facebook*

The special school holiday program is scheduled for Wednesday, September 23, running from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Visitors are encouraged to arrive early to secure good spots for the main presentation and make the most of the morning activities.

Getting Up Close with Native Fauna

Specialist wildlife educators from Urban Reptiles are heading to the region to host an interactive learning session. Children and adults alike will get the chance to observe a diverse range of Australian species up close.

The lineup often features fascinating creatures such as skinks, geckos, dragons, monitor lizards, frogs, turtles, and various native snakes. Organisers note that these presentations aim to foster a deeper appreciation for local conservation efforts and reptile behaviour in a safe, engaging environment.

What Your Ticket Includes

Admission bundles offer great value for local parents trying to manage holiday entertainment costs. Each ticket covers full entry to the expansive historical village grounds, admission to the live animal education show, a fun train ride around the property, a classic sausage sizzle lunch, and a bottled water.

While general admission handles the core activities, attendees should note that individual souvenir photos with the handlers and animals may incur a small separate fee.

Exploring the Village Grounds

Beyond the reptile show, ticket holders have the freedom to wander across the heritage buildings and curated displays. Stepping back in time allows kids to explore a slice of local history while enjoying a relaxed family day out in the fresh spring air.

Published Date 03-September-2026