Author Description

The book "Mission Point" subtitled "Bribie Island Aboriginal Mission 1892", tells the story of the second aboriginal mission established on Bribie Island for Moreton Bay aboriginals. However, native superstition worked strongly, against the location at Bribie Island. Newspapers of the time, described it as "adverse heredity superstition". Similar superstition, did not apply at the Myora Mission on North Stradbroke Island (1892-1942) or the Cherbourg mission (established 1900). Those missions were successful and today remember their past in their own museums. Ron Powell is a friend and honorary life member of the North Stradbroke Island Historical Society and thanks the society for help in researching material, also The Cherbourg Historical Precinct Group. The book has some 50 photos including photos of Cherbourg Ration Shed Museum.We look briefly at the superstition, the Queensland Government appointing a great number of white people to remove Aboriginal people onto and between reserves. To take aboriginal children from parents, place them in dormitories, reserves, missions, and when they reached fourteen put them out to white persons as household servants or farm hands at a reduced rate of pay?The Australian constitution declared Aboriginal people could not be counted in any census, denied them citizenship and all legal rights. A marked contrast to New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi that granted full citizenship rights to Maori people.Australia prohibited aborigines volunteering for the armed services throughout World War 1. We dedicate the book to the memory of Richard Martin, a Moreton Bay aborigine who successfully joined the AIF on 17th December 1914, by falsely declaring on his attestation papers that he was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. He served at Gallipoli, Egypt, Belgium, and France until his death in action on 28 March 1918.