Bribie Island,

The Passage & Shipping Channel 

2024-12  Timelapse video: see how ocean has impacted narrow sections of island courtesy sunshinecoastnews.com.au

Damien Lange’s timelapse video via drone shows tidal overwash at two sections of Bribie Island, from March until October.

2023-11 Lead light footing

2023-03 Bribie from Gemini Towers by Pamela - footing shown arrowed

2022-09 Bribie leading light footings taken from "North" Bribie Island after the breakthrough

2022-01-02 Cyclone Seth

2019-01 Bribie from Pamela

2018-06-04 End of the line for Bribie's lighthouse Sunshine Coast Daily p7

2018-06-01 Mother Nature eventually gets it way.  Yesterday’s removal of the lighthouse beacon from the Northern end of Bribe Island. Last couple old photos showing where it stood proud before years of erosion slowly moved in.

Photo courtesy Clayton's Towing Facebook page

2015 Bribie Light with Caloundra in the background courtesy Robin

1998 From Westaway Towers - shows the lead light on Bribie, also the Signal Station, courtesy John Groves

Back light at Golden Beach replaces earlier structure - Gemini was constructed 1982

Thanks Darryl Laing for passing on these from Bev Worthington

Extract from Beacon to Beacon Directory 2004 showing the entry to the North West Channel. The Caloundra Head light is the beacon on Wickham Point, and Golden Beach and Bribie lighthouses line up the channel 

The Anro Asia aground just off the Caloundra Bar - the vehicles were on the extended spit out from Happy Valley that has now disappeared - the vehicles would be in the sea now.  1981 photo courtesy Tony Dyason

There was an eleven minute NZ film - it starts with a couple of seconds showing the Signal Station light in operation. Uploaded to YouTube on Nov 3, 2011 but deleted due to copyright infringment.   Before the MV Rena hit the Astrolabe Reef of Tauranga NZ there was the ANRO ASIA Grounding in Queensland, this TVNZ film segment shows what was done in 1981.  with Ian Lockley and RAAF Chinooks

thanks Lee-Anne Bryant, Facebook Caloundra- The good old days- The 80's

Caloundra Journal 29th April 2011 p11 Anro Asia shipwreck 1981

View from Westaway Towers showing the Anro Asia and the Signal Station courtesy Des Stone

Caloundra 1981 topographic shows navigational lights

Alex Hay Collection Bribie undated but pre Stockland late 70's

Detail of photo above showing the lead light in the centre of the island 

Fort Bribie link  Queensland WWII Historic Places, Queensland Government

Fort Bribie searchlight post World War Two     1994 photos Roger Todd

Bribie Island Fortifications Conservation Study cover Allom Lovell Marquis Kyle Architects 1993

shows the searchlight post then on the beach but previously in the dunes, environmental

Nambour Chronical 1966 Bushwalking on Bribie courtesy the Gosling family and Peter Magee

Fort Bribie was built on Bribie Island, Queensland, Australia, during WW2 as part of the Moreton Bay harbour defences.

Photos and research by Dr. Richard Walding (copyright).

Caloundra inch to one mile army map 1942 courtesy Landsborough Museum.  Shows Dickey Beach (now Dicky Beach) Caloundra and the northern tip of Bribie.  The Bribie lighthouses are shown guiding shipping into the channel via the southern entry south of the Hamiliton patches

From Brothers of Bribie Heritage by Audrey Abrahams

1930s note from the Front Light courtesy the Gosling family and Peter Magee

Mandy Brennan - Mac Gosling was the lighthouse keeper on the front light at Caloundra end of Bribie Island he was also my grandfather.

My grandparents lived in Burwah Terrace opposite the bowling green from about 1953 when my grandfather retired. The handwriting on that notes looks very much like my grandmother's writing.  from Facebook - Caloundra- The good old days- The 80's

1911 log from Bribie Lighthouse about the Eastern shipwreck and Customs interest courtesy Gosling family and Peter Magee.  See accounts in the Nambour Chronical regarding the grounding of the Eastern on a sandbank near Bribie, extract from Caloundra by Kathleen McArthur and an extract from autobiographical novel No Wider Land by Roy Bulcock.  

Eastern as she lies on the bank, from Edlundh's newspaper clippings, photo by the "Courier" special on the scene

1891 Moreton Bay northern entrances surveyed by E A Cullen, nautical surveyor, courtesy Peter Kyle

Shows the sandbars in Moreton Bay.  The red been added after construction of the 1896 lighthouses

Detail of the chart - On entering Moreton Bay from the north, the two Bribie Lighthouses are lined up

When the red sector from Caloundra is seen, ships turn 90º into the North West Passagel

In modern times, the passage through the sandbars is further north

Bribie Lighthouses circa 1900 courtesy Shire of Landsborough Historical Museum

Detail of Bribie Lighthouses drawings showing the lantern 1896 Marine Department Queensland

Courtesy Shire of Landsborough Historical Museum

1896 Bribie skeleton towers Dept Harbours & Marine drawing courtesy Landsborough Museum

1896 Bribie front light cradle drawing courtesy Landsborough Museum

The front light could be moved on rails to account for changes to the passage

Excerpts from the logs of the front light can be seen here