Christine Leonard wrote this article after spending a morning reminiscing with Norma and friends back in May 2024. They revisited happy memories and earlier days on Coochie, with small talk and tall tales lubricated by cups of tea, coffee and biscuits.

The 2024 re-enactment of Flinders’ landing is also a celebration of Matthew Flinders naming Coochiemudlo Island as the Sixth Island 225 years ago.

Exciting developments for the Emerald Fringe on Coochiemudlo Island!

A new Conservation Management Plan will play a pivotal role in focusing on the heritage overlay of the Emerald Fringe.

Rosemary’s attachment to Coochiemudlo Island began on a day off from her work at Saint Anne’s Private Hospital, Cleveland, when she rowed her little dinghy to Coochiemudlo Island and heard an inner voice say, ‘You have to live here’.

We collected the specimens, pressed them, glued them, as artistically as we could onto sheets and labelled them – who, when and where they were found. Then we researched their botanic names using these resources and filed them. We enjoyed the company, the morning tea, learning about the Island’s flora and the feeling that we were doing something worthwhile. To explain why we felt it worthwhile we must go back in time.