Marked on Dixon’s 1842 survey map as Cabbage Tree Creek, but known to its earliest frequenters as Taigum, the generally skinny, muddy, overgrown little stream we know as Cabbage Tree Creek has played various roles in the history of our area.
For starters, Sandgate was originally known as Cabbage Tree Head and it was there that the embryonic settlement originated with the sale, in 1853 to Thomas Dowse, of three allotments of land on the cliffs overlooking the mouth of the creek.
For new settlers like Mr Dowse, the optimal way to get to Sandgate was by boat from Brisbane, land transport then being a matter of traveling on rough bush tracks by horse or horse-drawn vehicle. One of several significant obstacles in this journey was Cabbage Tree Creek. When it was finally bridged, near Bald Hills in 1862, the journey became substantially shorter, resulting in an influx of people attracted to Sandgate for both leisure and business purposes. One of these was John Baxter, a purveyor of seafood, who opened his eponymous oyster saloon overlooking the creek in the 1860s.
Building allotments at the mouth of the creek were highly desirable, as attested to by the number (and extravagance) of land sale advertisements in newspapers of the time, such as this from the Brisbane Courier in 1879: “the most highly favoured, distingué and affected position in this charming watering place … view unparalleled by any other location”. A major selling point was proximity to the creek for “residents to keep boats in security”.
The Creek’s Role in Defence
Valuable as it was to land speculators, the creek also figured in calculations regarding the defence of the fledgling colony of Queensland. In 1877, Sir William Jervois, tasked with surveying the coastal defences of Australia, examined the mouth of the waterway to determine its suitability as a landing place for troops. The following year, a volunteer force – established by the government with a view to strengthening the colony’s defences – arrived at an encampment (comprising 170 tents) overlooking the creek for training and manoeuvres. Guns were dragged into position on the bank and were aimed across the water for target practice.
The creek and its surrounds furnish many more tales for another day. Let’s leave it for now, though, with the men of the 1879 volunteer force, according to the Queensland Times, enjoying “a dip in the shoaly waters of Cabbage Tree Creek, the only available place for a clean-up”; an attractive image indeed albeit, to those familiar with the modern-day creek, a rather surprising one.
[With thanks to the Sandgate Historical Museum (opening hours: Sunday and Wednesday, 9am to 1.30pm. Adults $5, children $3, membership $20/$30).
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