Breakfast Creek - History

History

John Oxley and Allan Cunningham met members of an aboriginal clan at the mouth of the creek in 1824. After they had breakfast at the site minor conflict with the aboriginals arose after one of them grabbed Oxley's hat. John Oxley named the waterway in remembrance of the incident.

An important Aboriginal camping ground occupied the Breakfast Creek/ Hamilton area until it was broken up by police raids in the 1860s. The camp was one of the major sources from which local Aboriginal people supplied the Moreton Bay colony with fish. It was also where Aboriginal leader Dalaipi spoke his famous 'Indictments' which were published in the Moreton Bay Courier in 1858.

One of the first settlers on the creek was Patrick Leslie who in 1845 built the still-standing Newstead House. Brisbane's Cantonese community, who had established businesses in Fortitude Valley and built the Temple of the Holy Triad in 1886, settled in the flats around Breakfast Creek and Eagle Farm. During dry times in the early colony of Moreton Bay, when water from the Roma Street reservoir was depleted, supplies were carted from Breakfast Creek.

A number of floods destroyed early bridges across the creek. The bridge built in 1858 remained intact. Various streets close to Breakfast Creek were affected by the 1974 Brisbane floods and the 2011 Queensland floods.