Page 4 - Heritage A5 compile

Bay and the first by a European explorer in what is now the
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Redlands. Much of Coochiemudlo today remains as Flinders
described it on Friday 19 July 1799:

On the S. E. side of the island, this higher part descends
suddenly into a steep bank, where the earth is red as
blood…The trees upon it are large and luxuriant and the
new Pine is amongst them. The exterior part of the island
on the west side is a flat . . . abundantly covered with large
Mangrove trees. On the S. W .and N E sides, it is mostly
low and sandy and here the Palm –Nut [pandanus] tree is
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produced.

Despite the clear similarities between Coochiemudlo and the island
described by Flinders, Coochiemudlo was not recognised as
Flinders’ sixth island until the 1970s when island resident Ted Jones
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correctly interpreted Flinders’ records to make the identification.

The name Coochiemudlo was not, however used till the end of the
nineteenth century. By 1840 the name ‘Innis Island’ for the Island
was in local use at the Moreton Bay settlement; it was named after
13
Lieutenant Innis who explored much of the Bay. The Government
Surveyor, Robert Dixon produced a map issued in 1842 with the

10 The Explorers of Moreton Bay pp 9-39; E. F. Jones, Matthew Flinders: The
Discoverer of Coochie Mudlo Island, Coochi Mudlo Island Progress
Association 1977, p. 19.
11 Matthew Flinders quoted in The Explorers of Moreton Bay, p. 24.
12 E. F. Jones, The Coochiemudlo Island Heritage: An Historical Monograph
(Vol.1), Edward Field Jones, p. 8.
13 Jones, ‘Coochiemudlo Island in the Nineteenth Century’, p26.