Fettered Frontier

Book excerpt: Historian Jennifer Harrison’s latest book Fettered Frontier, Founding the Moreton Bay Settlement 1822–1826, a companion volume to Shackled: Female Convicts at Moreton Bay 1826 –1839 (2016) investigates the struggle to locate and establish an outpost in remote Moreton Bay. She uses original government correspondence, diaries, journals and maps and also examines the many mangled foundation stories from the time of the original site at Redcliffe and its removal to a location on the Brisbane River. The search for the river involved several exploratory voyages, the discovery of convict timber getters who had totally lost their bearings and the helpful local Aboriginal people. The stream, shrouded by mangroves, was finally discovered. A significantly sized waterway, it was appropriately named for Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane as was the campsite on its bank. Much research has concentrated on accurately re-creating economic, climatic and legal back stories together with defining the characters who made the decisions in London, Port Jackson (Sydney) and locally as well as the convicts who undertook the heavy manual work. Happy 200th Birthday, Brisbane — you have come a long way.