1820s

n 1823, John Oxley sailed north from Sydney to explore Port Curtis (now Gladstone) and Moreton Bay as potential penal settlements. He found the Brisbane River at Moreton Bay and explored the lower part of it. A year later, he returned and established a temporary settlement at Redcliffe, moving to the area where the central business district of Brisbane now stands. The settlement was initially called Edenglassie, a tribute to the Scottish towns Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Moreton Bay penal settlement under its commandant Captain Patrick Logan (1791–1830) was used for reoffenders and was the harshest penal settlement in New South Wales. By 1828, 693 convicts were imprisoned at Moreton Bay. Many tried to escape; James Davies (1808–1889) was one of the 'wild white men' who lived with the Aboriginal people of the region.