Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is little disagreement now, in 2021, that we can stand up and recognise the continuous unbroken connection to land of Indigenous Australians. In my electorate there are the Quandamooka people; there is Minjerribah obviously, formerly North Stradbroke Island, and Moreton Island, which was also recently transferred to Quandamooka management. I would argue the three language groups that make up Quandamooka are probably among the most innovative and progressive of the urban Indigenous groups that are working to co-manage this incredible resource that is Moreton Bay, but also capitalise on what makes it truly unique.

I have talked a lot about how unique Moreton Bay is, not just from an ecological sense, an estuarine sense, but also because of those incredible sand islands that hold spring water that is tens of thousands of years old. It has been, at times, an island that has been mined, but now we recognise just how important this island can be as an ecological asset. And it is the Quandamooka people who have full responsibility, after a period of co-management, to transition to a period of innovation, while also shining a light on what truly makes Moreton Bay special. This is an opportunity we leave to them, and already we've seen people like Josh Walker and his Quandamooka dancers, Mark Jones and Straddie Adventures, and Minjerribah Camping that runs at least half a dozen camp sites on Minjerribah. It is running what is, effectively, the traditional Aussie great escape to the great sand islands, like North Stradbroke, Moreton and Fraser, and giving Australians a chance to have that holiday on those beautiful islands. Let's also remember, of course, the possibility of landing at an international airport and, within 45 minutes to an hour, being on a sand island, being able to, in many cases, live on islands where one can commute to a major CBD. This makes the Moreton Bay area truly special.

We have the Moreton Bay Marine Park—that happened in the past two decades—and the co-management and increasing Indigenous leadership around places like Peel Island and Horseshoe Bay, where we see an overlay of colonial heritage. There is a lazaretto, where we can see still the original quarantine rooms that were used there. We have the original buildings from the turn of the 19th century, when a whaling community was initially set up on North Stradbroke Island. These are all incredible assets where tourists can enjoy both the overlay of colonial heritage and settlement, and of course the unbroken Indigenous connection to the land prior to 1788.

It was Matthew Flinders who first sailed into that bay and explored it. I think it was in 1801 he landed on Coochiemudlo Island in that the incredibly small skiff that he sailed right around the country. You'd have to call him one of the unluckiest adventurers of all. Having sailed up that coast looking for places to moor and harbour ships, he missed the Clarence River, the Brisbane River and, I think, the Fitzroy River. But, apart from that, he made some incredible discoveries on the way and he recorded, as many did, those first interactions with Indigenous Australians. There were mixed outcomes initially, but there has been a huge amount of cooperative effort to identify what is truly able to be showcased to the world. Moreton Bay will play a role in that.

The Indigenous Tourism Fund, which is $10 million a year, is enough to activate some of these young Indigenous entrepreneurs to show off these great areas, be they canoeing, the highly controversial whale-watching facility at Point Lookout or, more importantly, Brown Lake, Blue Lake, being able one day to travel on a walkway, a boardwalk, that effectively takes you around the island or being able to enjoy the 36 kilometres of unbroken main beach all the way down to South Stradbroke Island. These are the opportunities for my tiny patch of Australia, and the Indigenous Tourism Fund is critically important. We've tried driving small-scale economic activity. At one stage they were farming beche-de-mer, or sea cucumber. We've moved on to other forms of economic activity. We'd one day like to see a five-star hotel on the island so that the highest level of hotel and hospitality service can be offered. There's already a range of other accommodation, but never enough to meet the needs of a tiny patch of Australia that's so close to the population of two million that is Brisbane.

Those decisions fall to Quandamooka. We hope that they can have a CEO reappointed soon, given the departure of Cameron Costello late last year. The future is bright. The Indigenous Tourism Fund plays a huge role in the small startup grants that can fully capitalise and showcase the beautiful, wonderful Moreton Bay ecology.

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