Amity Point, Queensland

History

John Oxley named the point Amity after the ship he sailed in when establishing the Moreton Bay penal colony. It had been given the name Cypress Point for which it was only known as for a brief period. The site was chosen as a pilot station by John Gray because of its location close to the South Passage into Moreton Bay. It was the first European settlement on Stradbroke Island.

A supply boat called The Otter, which also carried tourists, ran between Brisbane's central business district and Amity Point from 1885 to 1946. Amity Point Post Office opened around 1942.

Demographics

In the 2011 census, Amity recorded a population of 348 people, 50.3% female and 49.7% male. The median age of the Amity population was 53 years, compared to the national median age of 37. 86% of people living in Amity were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were England 4.4%, New Zealand 1.7%, Solomon Islands 1.2%, Papua New Guinea 1.2%, Latvia 1.2%. 98% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common language was 0.9% Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole).

Infrastructure

Amity Point has little infrastructure built by either the private or public sectors. Due to this, the town's populace have to end up driving to either Dunwich for health and schooling facilities, or going by ferry or boat to the mainland town of Redlands.

Public sector

The only government infrastructure for the town is a single jetty, a library, a community hall, a Fire Station and a post office. No schools or hospitals are found in the town. This, however, is not due to a lack of government investment for the town, but rather due to the very small size of the town. There are only eighteen roads in the town, with the majority of those very small. Claytons Road, often called Point Lookout Road by the locals, due to the road leading to Point Lookout, is the only road which gives access to Amity from the rest of the island.

The Amity Point Library is the smallest permanent library in Australia being only 17.3 m² on the veranda of the local community hall and open only 9.5 hours each week.

Private sector

Private sector investments on the town only cater for the large number of tourists which come to the island every holiday season to make use of the town's beaches. There is a caravan park that caters for the budget traveller in the town. The cricket club at Amity is the only investment by the private sector that is catered for the local populace of the town, though it still receives much business from tourists.

Environment

Amity Point is surrounded by virgin forests to the south east and pristine beaches elsewhere.

Forests

The forests surrounding Amity Point are subtropical rainforests with a significant amount of diversity in both flora and fauna. This is despite the fact that North Stradbroke Island, along with Moreton Island to the north and South Stradbroke Island to the south, are made up entirely of sand, a substance that only a few, mostly monocotyledon plants have managed to survive in elsewhere in the world. The three islands also have species of ancient ferns that have survived only on these islands. The flowering rate of these ferns are very slow, and the trees are protected by Australian law so that only the Aboriginals, the original people of the island, may harvest them.

Beaches

The beaches which Amity Point township is located on have been eroded heavily by the rainbow channel, but Flinders Beach, 2–3 km (1¼–2 mi) to the east, and the Wanga Wallen Bank approximately 500 m (1,640 ft) to the south are in pristine condition, with a range of wildlife from U-Tube worms to Wobbegongs, a small brown shark, all present.

Amity Point boasts some of the largest shark numbers in the world, though shark attacks are rare, with only two recorded attacks. Despite the presence of shark drumlines, in places since 1997, a Brisbane woman was mauled to death by sharks while swimming in Rainbow Channel. The species of shark remains unknown, with bull sharks suspected by an expert and tiger sharks suggested by locals.