The Origin of the Emerald Fringe

By Keith Slack

In late 1885 an instruction was issued to Surveyor George Thomas McDonald, by the Queensland Surveyor Generals Department to Subdivide the Western half of Innis/Coochie Mudlo Island into one acre blocks for Auction Sale.

Town of Coochie original survey

The island was first charted in 1841 on a map of Moreton Bay produced by surveyor Robert Dixon. He named it Innes Island after Lieutenant Innes of the 57th regiment of Moreton Bay who had done some exploration in the area surrounding the Brisbane settlement Dixon had been promoted to the role of Moreton Region Surveyor in 1840 by Governor Sir George Gipps. But was suspended after an altercation with Lieutenant Gorman, commandant of the penal establishment. The charges against Dixon were that he had attempted to incite a mutiny after the arrest of his convict servant and that he had forced a sentry. Dixon denied these charges and made counter-charges of improper conduct against Gorman, who was later relieved of his appointment as magistrate; but Dixon was not reinstated. He had again offended by publishing on his own initiative in 1841 the map of Moreton Bay, which Governor Sir George Gipps regarded as an act of calculated defiance.

Robert Dixon produced the map while he was under suspension so it never received official sanction. By 1885, the island’s name had reverted to Coochie Mudlo.

The surveyor George Thomas McDonald was a Scott who came to Australia in 1853 and worked in Victorian Surveyor Generals Department. He received some notoriety in 1862 when he completed the first road survey in Victoria, a stock route which became known as McDonald’s Track, part of which is still in existence.

In 1878 following the Black Wednesday sackings of 400 top public servants, he moved to better pastures in Queensland where he worked as a contract surveyor for the Surveyor Generals Department in Brisbane. A short notice in the Brisbane Courier welcomed him with the following:

“We note that Surveyor George McDonald has recently moved to Queensland to practice his profession among us. We hope that he will find the Queensland public a better and more reliable employer than the Victorian Government.”

He commenced the survey of the Town of Coochie on the 15th of January 1886 and  completed it on the 9th February of that year.

Nine years prior in 1878 a notice to Surveyors by the Queensland Surveyor Generals Department, had made it mandatory when surveying crown land, to leave a minimum setback of 150 links (30 metres) from high water mark or top of river or creek bank. It was this initiative by the Surveyor General that created the Emerald Fringe as we know it resulting in a buffer between High Water Mark and the block frontages generally in excess 50 metres.

This completed George McDonald’s survey of The Town of Coochie. Some years later, unsurveyed crown leases were issued to the east of Elizabeth Street, and their boundaries defined the landward boundary of the esplanade.

It was this action that completed the esplanade around the circumference of the island creating the unique asset with its dense tree coverage that has been spared from development, and has appropriately been called “The Emerald Fringe.” In the 1990s, the roadway was excised from the esplanade, leaving the balance area of the esplanade as Lands Department Environmental leases with the Redland Shire as trustee. This is the situation as it stands today.

The benefit of the Emerald Fringe can not be overstated. As residents we are blessed to live in a community that is surrounded by the sea as well as by a forest of large imposing trees, giving us easy access to two of the most calming environments on the planet.

Boundary of the Emerald Fringe, used in CIHS application to include the Emerald Fringe in the Queensland State Government Heritage Register