The development of Brisbane was implicitly bound with that of Moreton Bay and the convict system. The settlement at Moreton Bay had been created in response to the problems of convict control in New South Wales and Van Diemens Land, and until 1842 the role of the settlement was entirely that of a penal colony. The development was also in line with colonial policy of establishing settlements along the coast line for strategic purposes, but it was not intended that Brisbane develop beyond an outpost governed by Sydney.

Brisbane was subjected to a great deal of upheaval; it had undergone difficulties in establishment and problems in adjustment. For years it was the focus of indecision, criticism and much frustration. The settlement had been neglected and threatened with abandonment, and later it faced fierce competition from rival settlement areas. However, from 1840 private interests began to have an influence on the destiny of the north, and in 1859 the separate colony of Queensland was created with Brisbane as its capital.

The founding of Brisbane resulted from the fears of the British government, that transportation to New South Wales was not a severe enough punishment to deter criminals in the United Kingdom. In 1817 Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, was faced with increasing criticism over rising crime rates. A number of influential people had begun to question whether the terror of exile to New South Wales was continuing to have effect on the rate of crime, and an inquiry was launched into other possible deterrents.

The recommendation of additional penal settlements in further isolated areas was made. At these newly created sites convicts were to be subjected to a regime of severe discipline and constant supervision. Three sites were suggested as a base for accommodating approximately 4000 convicts; all of these were in the north of New South Wales, removed from the main settlement, in the state now known as Queensland.

By the time the inquiry had been completed, the demand for assigned convict labour from private employers had risen, leaving fewer convicts in the government's hands. As a result, only one settlement of secondary punishment was required.

In September 1822 Lord Bathurst instructed Sir Thomas Brisbane, then the Governor of New South Wales, to carry out the recommendations of the proposal for a secondary punishment settlement on the north east coast. By the recommendations, this settlement was to be self sustaining and sited within an area that provided the least access to ships. The area was also to be relatively free of the usual recommendations for future development in terms of soil and exploitable natural resources.

Surveyor John Oxley was despatched to the three areas recommended in the proposal. Due to bad weather, Oxley was unable to visit Port Bowen, the most northerly locality recommended in the proposal; and Port Curtis was eliminated on the grounds of its unsuitability for agriculture and little timber for building.

Oxley was, however, impressed with the third site, finding what he believed to be the largest fresh water river of the east coast of New South Wales. He recommended a permanent settlement be located on what he had named the Brisbane River, with the Red Cliff peninsula on Morton Bay as the interim site for a convict outpost.

So it was that in September 1824, a penal settlement was established in the north of New South Wales. Governor Brisbane appointed Lieutenant Henry Miller to take a small party of convicts with military guards and civilians to establish a base; Oxley was to choose the site, Miller was to implement settlement.

At Red Cliff Peninsula, Oxley chose a suitable anchorage, located waterholes, and marked the position of various buildings. The convict labour force had been chosen to provide a variety of useful skills in building, and the settlement had been well prepared with a wide range of fruit trees, bushes, grasses, herbs and seeds, goats, sheep, pigs, and poultry and various tools and medicines sent from Sydney.

It became clear to London that the Moreton Bay district was not the uninviting area that had been sought. In July 1824, before Governor Brisbane had completed arrangements for the founding convict party, Lord Bathurst had advised that Norfolk Island should be reopened for the worst class of convicts leaving Moreton Bay for general colonisation.

Authorities in both London and Sydney had begun to consider Moreton Bay as a free settlement area with convict occupation as only an initial stage of development - the indecision which was to characterise and hinder the development of Brisbane, had already begun.

Red Cliffe Peninsula proved to have a number of disadvantages: crops would not grow, water was short and the timber was not suitable for building. The settlement also had trouble with the local Aboriginals, and the anchorage itself had become dangerous. Against instructions, Miller took his small colony 17 miles upstream to where the centre of Brisbane exists today.

Governor Brisbane had recommended the new settlement be located nearer to the river mouth at Breakfast Creek - debate over the siting of the town was to continue for over a year. While at first the new settlement was called Moreton Bay Settlement, by 1826 the commandant was signing his dispatches from Brisbane Town.

After its creation as a penal settlement, government interest in Moreton Bay declined. Sydney played an administrative role checking the efficiency and success of the settlement, but the main management of the settlement came from its commandant. Though plagued by difficulties, the settlement slowly grew.

Brisbane's successor, Governor Darling, was critical of the whole penal system, and instituted a higher degree of punishment and discipline in all settlements. As a result, the population within the Moreton Bay area grew. In 1826 Darling appointed a like minded commandant to Moreton Bay; floggings became common, men worked in irons and solitary confinement cells were erected.

By 1827 there were 195 convicts and 77 military officers at Brisbane Town holding the largest settlement of re-convicted convicts in the colony .

Brisbane Town's third commandant was particularly dissatisfied with the location of the settlement. His discovery of the fertile lands of the Logan River district led him to push for the relocation of the settlement to Stradbroke Island. Following Darling's visit to Brisbane Tow, and being in agreement with the commandant regarding the 'highly objectionable' location of Brisbane, it was suggested that a stores depot be located on the Island, and a small vessel to be used to ferry goods to Brisbane Town.

Further problems with the siting of Brisbane arose in 1829 when the head of the medical department complained that inadequate and impure water supplies were contributing to a high level of sickness in the settlement.

Amongst the continuing criticism of Brisbane, Darling advised the Colonial Office that a more suitable location for the settlement was to be found. Though a number of locations were suggested, the idea of a total move was abandoned due to the costs involved, and Brisbane Town remained as the focal point of a number of growing out stations - including a new convict farm established down the river at Eagle Farm.

Come 1831, the settlement had existed in a state of limbo, its uncertain future leading to stagnation and decline. Dissatisfaction with the siting of Brisbane lessened in the 1830s, as official interest switched to the larger question of the abandonment of the settlement.

Concerns over the cost and efficiency of the settlement led the British government to recommend the abandonment of the Moreton Bay outpost, but no suggestion was made as to the future of Moreton Bay.

The abandonment of the settlement became a protracted affair; at the end of 1832 Governor Bourke began to implement the running down of Brisbane Town, but final closure continued to be delayed. By 1834 the numbers of convicts had declined to 400, though the worst offenders were still sent to Moreton Bay. Secondary offenders in other colonies were now put to work in hard labour road crews. The administration's planning on reduced convict numbers lead to the closure of the Moreton Bay settlement in due course.

In 1837 the settlement housed 300 convicts. It had become secure with few escapes and had become fully self supporting. Pressure to close the settlement was mounting, but Bourke felt that the issues of the settlement's future had to be resolved prior to its abandonment. To Bourke's mind, the future of the female convicts had to be determined, as did the manner in which the area would be opened for free settlement. Of greater concern was how a free settlement would pay for its administration.

The arrival of Commandant Cotton provided an element of salvation for the Brisbane settlement. Cotton ruled the settlement with a practical efficiency and a desire for success. Unlike his predecessors, Cotton had accepted Brisbane as the focal point of settlement in the area and was determined to use the town site to its best advantage.

He discounted all talk of moving the centre to another location, and set about creating roads which would provide the out stations with rapid access to and communication with the Brisbane settlement.

However, the campaign against Brisbane continued, and by May 1839 the bulk of the convicts were removed. By mid year only a maintenance crew remained, and the penal settlement had effectively been closed. The area was to be thrown open to free settlement, but no official timetable had been set. For the next two years the Sydney government did little to develop the northern districts.

In 1842 the area was opened up to free settlement. Three communities at South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and Fortitude Valley grew up around the original convict site, while others in further outlying areas such as Ipswich also grew.

Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, other urban communities unsuccessfully challenged Brisbane's place as the main commercial and administrative centre of the northern district of New South Wales.

South Brisbane in particular saw itself as the successor of the original settlement which had become known as North Brisbane, but despite a number of commercial and geographical advantages, the commercial decisions which had led to South Brisbane's rise also led to its fall when a number of businesses including the influential Australian Steam Ship Navigation Company relocated its administrative centre to the North.

The wide dispersion of population in the Brisbane district and the struggle between North and South Brisbane for supremacy detracted from the growth of Brisbane; but it was the squatter driven challenge from the Ipswich area that almost ruined the town. The discovery of rich limestone deposits in Ipswich had initiated a land boom, and because of its mineral wealth a number of squatters wanted to bypass both Brisbane townships and promote the interests of Ipswich, establishing it as the centre of the Moreton Bay area.

A number of interests agreed with creating a port at Cleveland Point on Moreton Bay, where large overseas vessels could be unloaded, and smaller ones could carry the cargo to Ipswich where the goods could be distributed inland. Though the site of Cleveland was found unsuitable by Governor Gipps, his decision not to relocate the port did not prevent the issue from being raised throughout the 1840s and 1850s, when the battle over the suitability of Brisbane continued to rage in the press and in the political arena.

It was not until 1840 and 1842 that the proper planning of Brisbane Town was at last undertaken. Surveyor Robert Dixon prepared the first plan, and a rectangular grid was adopted with Queen Street and the stone prisoners barracks providing the main alignment. Streets running north-east were named after queens, and those to the north west after kings. However, criticism of the town plan arose over its lack of parklands, and the limited extent of river frontage that had been set aside for public purposes such as roads.

In 1855, the New South Wales government resolved that Brisbane and not Cleveland would be the port for the Moreton Bay region, and so the issue of Brisbane's lack of suitability was finally quelled. Its status as a somewhat overlooked penal settlement had given the area a head start on any other centres, and in the late 1850s, despite a history of dissatisfaction with the site, it had become clear that it would become the capital of the new colony of Queensland which was granted self government in 1859.


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