Wellington Point’s hidden trail

Around the other side of Wellington Point’s long spit, was a cement pathway that most people ignored, including me. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve visited this thin strip of land stretching out into Moreton Bay. But on my last visit, I wanted to see part of the bay from a different location and noticed the trail.

Return to a childhood haunt

Personally King Island had a completely different history from the one I wrote in my last Auz post. To me it was a fascinating island because it could be reached on foot at low tide. Originally called Yerra-bin by the Aboriginal people of Quandamooka (Moreton Bay), the name was later changed to King.

Tiny island in the bay

King Island was a small island off Wellington Point that was a popular Moreton Bay tourist destination in the early 1900s. For a couple of years during that era, the Phillips family lived on the island because one of their children was advised to bathe daily in the salt water to ease her polio symptoms.

Fresh water turtle hike

Within Turtle Swamp Wetlands, there was a wide trail amongst Australia’s best vegetation. If I’d visited in the spring, the ground would have been covered in wildflowers. But when I arrived on Russell Island, it was winter, or at least that’s what the locals thought a twenty-three degree day was.

Turtle Swamp Wetlands

While trees were being bulldozed to build more houses, Russell Island’s Turtle Swamp Wetland was preserved. This was a place to soak up the beautiful squiggly bark gum trees, grass trees and paper barks.

What’s a Queenslander?

Some out of state people might think I’m referring to banana benders; the name given to people living in the sunshine state. But I’m talking about the unique architecture of the original wooden homes built especially for the sultry climate.

Return to Sandy Beach

Over a year later, I returned to the same Russell Island beach where North Stradbroke Island stretched like a giant crocodile across the channel. Last visit, the tide was high and the beach appeared no more than a metre wide, but on my next trip, the tide was out, and the rippled sand stretched for one hundred metres to the sea.