Kleinschmidt’s Depot at Grey Street

Kleinschmidt’s depot at Grey Street (photo courtesy Graham Day)

Robin Kleinschmidt writes:

The wharf, office and a house were on the upstream site of where the William Jolly Bridge is now. This photo is of the bins and storage areas of Moreton Sand and Gravel approximately where the Kurilpa Bridge enters the parkland today. It was the secondary part of their operations, but when the shipping on the bay began to lose out to the road and rail transport, this became their mainstay. They acquired it from a consortium of hardware retailers whose building company customers wanted a one stop shop which including the sand and gravel for their concreting. It was run poorly and without enthusiasm until Uncle Ted and his son Ray bought it. They had long been transporting sand from Stradbroke Island for the Brisbane Glassworks at South Brisbane/West End, and eventually some of their boats such as The Maid of Sker and the S’port were converted to gravel barges working the Brisbane River.

Reminders of Peoples Past – 11 – Bee Gees Street Memorial

The Bee Gees Street Memorial

It is fitting that we end this series by returning to whence we set out: the Redcliffe Peninsula, and to its world famous export, The Bee Gees. In recent years the Council has renamed a whole street after them and decked it out with memorabilia from their singing career.

On his most recent visit to Redcliffe, Barry Gibb, the oldest and only surviving member of the pop group, told a reporter of the life changing decision they had made as young teenagers. Like many others with too much time on their hands, the three brothers amused themselves by stealing goods from the local shops. However, Barry’s conscience got the better of him, and he took his younger siblings, Maurice and Robin, and their contraband good out to the end of the Redcliffe Jetty and announced to them that they had to make a decision: do we carry on with our stealing or do we do something useful with our lives?

They threw all their stolen goods off the end of the jetty. The rest is history…

Redcliffe Jetty

Reminders of Peoples Past – 10 – Pebble Beach Memorial

Pebble Beach Memorial unveiling 17.9.1995 (Photo courtesy Albert Jeays)

As in so many other cities, suburbs, and towns of Australia, it is fitting that war memorials have been erected to honour the sacrifices of those men and women who have served in our armed forces. The Northern Moreton Bay Region is no exception, and here I have chosen just one example: the Pebble Beach Memorial at Toorbul Point

Pebble Beach Memorial (Photo courtesy Albert Jeays)

The inscription reads:

Erected by the Caboolture Shire Council

as an “Australia Remembers: 1945 – 1995 Project

to commemorate the Toorbul Point combined operations centre

and to the many allied personnel who engaged in amphibious training exercises here

during World War II.

Unveiled on September 17th 1995.