In the 60 the only way to get to point – Point Lookout on Straddie that is – was via the day-tripping Hayles timber cruse boat named the Mirimar. This boat would leave every Saturday from The Quay in the Brisbane central city precinct. It would travel down the Brisbane River and eventually arrive at Amity Point Stradbroke Island, after doing a carefree sightseeing cruse of Moreton Bay. I mean to say, if you have seen the mud flats of Cuchimudlo once, you hardly need to see it again. But we did every year. Now the Durbages, an early pioneering family of Point Lookout, ran a weekly bus service from Amity Point to Point Lookout that interconnected with the Miramar’s weekly arrival. So our family would all pile off the boat, complete with our 4 weeks supply of equipment and food, and promptly load it all onto the back of the waiting bus. Now when I say bus I mean a long, red vehicle with four big wheels, but no sides. Yes folks, it had no windows. This meant that, the attentive avoidance to ensure that one was not hit in the face by an overhanging branch of a tree stationed along the soft sandy bush track, was just part of our wonderful holiday adventure. I still remember it as a rather lurching ride punctuated by the occasional delay caused by some mechanical beak down. See, the sheer physical isolation of Point Lookout ensured that those early pioneers had to be pretty much self sufficient at everything, including bus engine repairs. All bus engine problems were eventually solved and we always made it to our destination at the point, even if somewhat delayed. Still, that trip would take anything up to 1 hour on a good day compared to the 15 minute smooth bitumen flash travel of today. By the late 70s the day-tripping passenger boat Miramar was replaced, as the Point Lookout transporter, by the Myora. The Myora was a small rusty old vehicular barge that departed from Cleveland daily and offloaded its contents at Dunwich, a settlement situated on the bay side of the island. This means of transport was not totally without its problems either. How many times would we arrive up at the loading ramp to find a large number of cars still waiting to board the previous scheduled trip, due to have left 2 hours prior often! Thankfully it never broke down mid trip in the bay. Still, I believe it was the barge’s gruff Scottish jigsaw master who somehow managed to fit all 20 cars, a bus and a mineral sands truck on each cramped trip, who was the real genius of that era. The requirement to reverse on to the elevated, ever moving twin track ramp and then to proceed to within inches of surrounding vehicles was not a task to be undertaken by the feint hearted. Now the development of the mineral sands mining business on Stradbroke Island brought a new road connecting Dunwich to Point Lookout. Now the term road may convey to you a slightly incorrect visual image. Let’s just say they were rather hard tracks, obviously without the previous grass growing in the middle and designed primarily for heavy suspension trucks, but hardly suitable for the tourist types desirous of a more pleasant and scenic journey. I remember it as a road of constant shudders so much so that conversations were mostly limited to yeah and nah. It was an experience that felt a bit like and hour spent on one of those fashionable weight-loss vibrating belt machines of the 80s. The constant shaking caused by the weathered structure of the road, guarantee a top speed of only 40kmp and a trip duration of over one hour. The only relief from this constant tremor was the longed for 22 meter strip of road on Myora Hill. See for a reason that remains a twilight zone mystery even till today, the Island Council had laid a piece of smooth black bitumen for a whole 22 meters of this arduous 40km journey. As was the tradition, all passengers and crew were required to express the mandatory Aarrhhhh as we crossed without quiver over this momentary section of bliss.
