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Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in Australia, Coochiemudlo
Island was visited by family groups of the coastal clans of the
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Yuggera people. On Coochiemudlo Island there was a rich source
of seafood such as fish, shellfish and crabs, intermittent fresh water,
pandanus nuts and swamp water fern roots, ochres, and bark for
shields and canoes. There is evidence of stone tools, shell middens
and scar trees, so the Yuggera people first used the Emerald Fringe
up to 20,000 years ago. Mortar and pestle grind stones have been
found and there are remains of a stone fish trap at the southeast
corner of the island. The red ochre stones, which give the island its
name, would have been used for body decorations and the red
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pigment for shields and skin. The name ‘Coochiemudlo’ is derived
from the Aboriginal words ‘kutchi’ meaning red, and ‘mudlo’ meaning
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stone.

On July 19, 1799 Lieutenant Matthew Flinders RN of the HMS
Norfolk landed on Coochiemudlo Island, his ‘Sixth Island’, noting
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evidence of dogs, fireplaces and rough temporary shelters.
Coochiemudlo was one of four landfalls made by Flinders in Moreton
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

6 J. Pearn, ‘In the Beginning Aboriginal Forebears on Coochiemudlo Island’,
in Chronicles of Coochiemudlo, p3.
7 Jones, ‘Coochiemudlo Island in the Nineteenth Century’, p23
8 M. Howells, Coochiemudlo – Brief History, Redlands Shire Council, 2001,
p.1.
9 Quoted in Pearn, ‘In the Beginning’, p. 15.
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.

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