Amity is a rural town and
locality
Locality may refer to:
* Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England
* Locality (linguistics)
* Locality (settlement)
* Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...
in the
City of Redland
Redland City, better known as the Redlands and formerly known as Redland Shire, is a local government area and a part of the Brisbane metropolitan area in South East Queensland. With a population of 156,863 in June 2018, the city is spread alon ...
,
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
, Australia.
In the , the locality of Amity had a population of 387 people.
[
It is known as ''Pulan Pulan'' by the traditional owners, the ]Quandamooka people
The Quandamooka people are Aboriginal Australians who live around Moreton Bay in Southeastern Queensland. They are composed of three distinct tribes, the Nunukul, the Goenpul and the Ngugi, and they live primarily on Moreton and North Stradbro ...
.
Geography
Amity is located on the north western point of North Stradbroke Island
North Stradbroke Island ( Jandai: ''Minjerribah''), colloquially ''Straddie'' or ''North Straddie'', is an island that lies within Moreton Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, southeast of the centre of Brisbane. Originally there was onl ...
(known as Amity Point). Directly north is the South Passage and the southern tip of Moreton Island
Moreton Island (Mulgumpin) is an island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay on the coast of South East Queensland, Australia. The Coral Sea lies on the east coast of the island. Moreton Island lies northeast of the Queensland capital, Brisbane. ...
. To the east lies the small town of Point Lookout and to the south lies the main town of North Stradbroke Island, Dunwich
Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast.
In the Anglo-Saxon period, Dunwich was t ...
. Wallum Creek snakes along the southern border of the town. Rainbow Channel lies directly adjacent to Amity Point in Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...
.
History
In 1824 John Oxley
John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828)
was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two exp ...
named the headland Amity Point after the brig ''Amity'' he sailed in when establishing the Moreton Bay penal colony
The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement operated from 1825 to 1842. It became the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
History
The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement was established on the Redcliffe Peninsula on Moreton Bay in 1824, under the instruct ...
. It had been given the name Cypress Point for which it was only known as for a brief period. The site was chosen as a pilot station
Pilot Station ( esu, Tuutalgaq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 568 at the 2010 census, up from 550 in 2000.
Geography
Pilot Station is located at (61.936050, -162.883403), on the northern bank of t ...
by John Gray because of its location close to the South Passage into Moreton Bay. It was the first European settlement on Stradbroke Island
Stradbroke Island, also known as Minjerribah, was a large sand island that formed much of the eastern side of Moreton Bay near Brisbane, Queensland until the late 19th century. Today the island is split into two islands: North Stradbroke Islan ...
.
A supply boat called ''The Otter'', which also carried tourists, ran between Brisbane's central business district
Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the ...
and Amity from 1885 to 1946.
Amity Point State School opened on 7 April 1919, but closed in 1920. On 22 February 1937, it reopened as Cylinder Beach Provisional School. After 8 months the school was relocated to a site approx from Amity Point, where it reopened on 19 October 1937 as Amity Provisional School, but closed on 2 September 1938. On 30 January 1951, the school reopened as Amity Point State School. It closed permanently on 19 November 1961.
Amity Point Post Office opened around 1942.
St Peter's Anglican Church was dedicated on 29 October 1957 by Venerable Frank Knight. Its closure circa 2018 was approved by Locum Bishop Godfrey Fryar
Godfrey Charles Fryar was the eleventh Bishop of Rockhampton in the Anglican Church of Australia.
Early life
Fryar was educated at All Souls' Charters Towers.
Religious life
Fryar and ordained in 1973. He was a Bush Brother until 1976 a ...
.
In the , the locality of Amity had a population of 408.
In the , the locality of Amity had a population of 348, 50.3% female and 49.7% male. The median age of the Amity population was 53 years, compared to the national median age of 37. 86% of people living in Amity were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were England 4.4%, New Zealand 1.7%, Solomon Islands 1.2%, Papua New Guinea 1.2%, Latvia 1.2%. 98% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common language was 0.9% Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole).
In the , the locality of Amity had a population of 387 people.
Education
There are no schools in Amity. The nearest government primary school is Dunwich State School in Dunwich
Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast.
In the Anglo-Saxon period, Dunwich was t ...
to the south. The nearest government secondary school is Cleveland District State High School
Cleveland District State High School is an independent coeducational public secondary school based in Cleveland in the local government area of Redland City in Queensland, Australia. In August 2020, the school had a total enrolment of 2120 stude ...
in Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
on the mainland.
Infrastructure
Amity has little infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
built by either the private or public sectors. Due to this, the town's populace have to end up driving to either Dunwich
Dunwich is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB around north-east of London, south of Southwold and north of Leiston, on the North Sea coast.
In the Anglo-Saxon period, Dunwich was t ...
for health and schooling facilities, or going by ferry or boat to the mainland town of Redlands.
Public sector
The only government infrastructure for the town is a single jetty
A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...
, a library, a community hall, a Fire Station and a post office. No schools or hospitals are found in the town. This, however, is not due to a lack of government investment for the town, but rather due to the very small size of the town. There are only eighteen roads in the town, with the majority of those very small. Claytons Road, often called Point Lookout Road by the locals, due to the road leading to Point Lookout, is the only road which gives access to Amity from the rest of the island.
The Redland City Council
Redland City, better known as the Redlands and formerly known as Redland Shire, is a local government area and a part of the Brisbane metropolitan area in South East Queensland. With a population of 156,863 in June 2018, the city is spread alon ...
operate the Amity Point Library. It is a very small library being only 22 m² on the veranda of the local community hall and open only 9 hours each week.
Private sector
Private sector investments on the town only cater for the large number of tourists which come to the island every holiday season to make use of the town's beaches. There is a caravan park that caters for the budget traveller in the town. The cricket club at Amity is the only investment by the private sector that is catered for the local populace of the town, though it still receives much business from tourists.
Environment
Amity is surrounded by virgin forests to the south east and pristine beaches elsewhere.
Forests
The forests surrounding Amity are subtropical rainforests with a significant amount of diversity in both flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''.
E ...
and fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...
. This is despite the fact that North Stradbroke Island, along with Moreton Island to the north and South Stradbroke Island
The South Stradbroke Island (Indigenous: ''Minjerribah''), colloquially ''South Straddie'', is an island that lies within Moreton Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, south of Brisbane and forms the northern end of Gold Coast. The island ...
to the south, are made up entirely of sand, a substance that only a few, mostly monocotyledon
Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of ...
plants have managed to survive in elsewhere in the world. The three islands also have species of ancient fern
A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...
s that have survived only on these islands. The flowering rate of these ferns are very slow, and the trees are protected by Australian law so that only the Aboriginals, the original people of the island, may harvest them.
Beaches
The beaches around Amity township have been eroded heavily by the rainbow channel, but Flinders Beach, 2–3 km (1¼–2 mi) to the east, and the Wanga Wallen Bank approximately to the south are in pristine condition, with a range of wildlife from U-Tube worms to Wobbegong
The wobbegong is the common name given to the 12 species of carpet sharks in the family Orectolobidae. They are found in shallow temperate and tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean, chiefly around Australia and I ...
s, a small brown shark, all present.
Amity Point boasts some of the largest shark numbers in the world, though shark attack
A shark attack is an attack on a human by a shark. Every year, around 80 unprovoked attacks are reported worldwide. Despite their rarity, many people fear shark attacks after occasional serial attacks, such as the Jersey Shore shark attacks of ...
s are rare, with only one recorded fatal attack. Despite the presence of shark drumlines, in places since 1997, a Brisbane woman was mauled to death by sharks while swimming in Rainbow Channel. The species of shark remains unknown, with bull shark
The bull shark (''Carcharhinus leucas''), also known as the Zambezi shark (informally zambi) in Africa and Lake Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a species of requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in riv ...
s suspected by an expert and tiger shark
The tiger shark (''Galeocerdo cuvier'') is a species of requiem shark and the last extant member of the family Galeocerdonidae. It is a large macropredator, capable of attaining a length over . Populations are found in many tropical and tempera ...
s suggested by locals.
References
{{authority control
Suburbs of Redland City
Coastal towns in Queensland
1824 establishments in Australia
Populated places established in 1824
North Stradbroke Island
Localities in Queensland