RQYS Mainsheet 2021

A KIOSK TOO FAR

Besides Ray and Nola Cowie, the only other regular inhabitants of Peel Island were Bob and Sue Pelgrave, who visited on weekends to run their kiosk on the beach on the eastern end of Horseshoe Bay. Their kiosk provided basic essentials such as ice, milk, ice creams, and hamburgers to the yachties who anchored at The Horseshoe on their weekend visits. Bob had a generator at the kiosk, and on one memorable New Year in 1991, Ray placed Nola’s electronic organ on the tray of the tractor, brought it down to the beach, and hooked it up to the generator. What followed was one of the most memorable midnight sing-alongs you can imagine with all the yachties coming ashore to join in! Even the water police stopped by for a song or two! In those days, it was still allowable to light fires on Peel, and all along the beach campers huddled around flickering flames. It was great to wander from fire to fire and share some New Year cheer.

Bob Pelgrave’s kiosk at Horseshoe Bay, ca 1990. Pic: Ray Cowie (via Peter Ludlow)

My favourite time on Peel was a sundown, when we often used to go down to Bob’s kiosk and enjoy a drink while watching the sunset over Horseshoe Bay. We could have been anywhere on the Great Barrier Reef, and not just an hour’s journey from the heart of Brisbane. In many ways, the kiosk provided a focal point for people to meet on Horseshoe Bay, and it was unfortunate that when the QPWS took over Peel in 1993, it did not provide any guarantee of tenure for the kiosk, so Bob and Sue closed it down. It was to remain unattended for some time until some children set it alight and it was burnt to the ground.

HISTORICAL

ABOUT PETER A former hospital pharmacist, Peter now devotes himself full time as a professional researcher, biographer and author specialising in, but not limited to, the collecting of local history in the Moreton Bay area. This he disseminates into the community through self-published books, lectures to local community groups and, since 1997, by maintaining a website: moretonbayhistory.com As well as his Moreton Bay research, Peter has received commissions to write other works such as the history of Brisbane’s Mater Hospital Pharmacy, Queensland’s German Connections (co-author) and the history of the Port of Brisbane. In 2013/14 he was a consultant and co-author of a book for the Museum of Brisbane’s exhibition entitled The Many Lives of Moreton Bay . Peter’s 2015 writing project was a commission from the Cleveland Library entitled World War I Heroes of the Redlands and, more recently, he completed a history of the family behind the firm of George Symons Suits, the well-known suit maker in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne last century. In each RQYS members’ weekly e-newsletter In The Wind , Peter selects a snippet from his Moreton Bay archives for the MUSINGS segment. Texts on these pages are from Peter’s book Peel Island History: A Personal Quest which is available for download as a PDF book for $9.99 from Peter’s website at: https://peterlud.wordpress.com/my-publications/peel-island-history-a-personal-quest

Peel Island History: A Personal Quest “Peel Island has continued to fascinate me since 1977 – the year I began my researches into its history. All my Moreton Bay books have contained Peel information as it became

available – a very slow leaching indeed! Now for the first time I have collected ‘everything Peel’ into a single volume, which I have published in PDF form, a collection of all the material I’ve written about Peel Island in the last 44 years.”

Mainsheet 2021

53

rqys.com.au

Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yearbook