Photography Session Cabbage Tree Creek, Brisbane, Queensland. Australia

Up early I penciled a walk from Cabbage Tree Creek to Shorncliffe Pier following the dirt track bellow the cliffs. Walking North of Baxter’s Jetty you can make your way around by the shore eventually to Moora Park and Shorncliffe Pier in Bramble Bay. This walk seems popular for all ages and also for those with dogs.

I walked along the esplanade, following the waterline around to Cabbage Tree Creek, the road is now Sinbad Road. You will pass two of the boating clubs housed there. There are many lawned parks and places for children to run around and burn off their energy, and there are great spots for a picnic lunch or just to sit and enjoy the seaside scenery. It is a lovely area to walk too. There are a number of food outlets in the area if you do not have your own picnic supplies. The waterfront is not far from the Shorncliffe Railway Station, or the Shorncliffe Pier.

Upon entering the path I noticed it was high tide and extremely long grass each side, so to air on caution of snakes I turned the morning into scouting for a future morning or afternoon photo shoot. As tempting as it is to just show up at a convenient location and start shooting, you greatly increase your chances of success by planning the shoot in advance. The first thing you’ll want to determine is the best location from which to shoot.

The Shorncliffe area always has a mix of purples, pinks, oranges and yellows and the mirror image that springs from the water when the tide is in ensures there’s an army of keen snappers lining up with their tripods to catch the perfect sunrise. One of Brisbane’s best kept seafood secrets, the Shorncliffe Trawlers, lies in the inlet of Cabbage Tree Creek. Dotted along the Sinbad St stretch can be found a line-up of fishing trawlers who moor here after their seafood catching adventures at sea. Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings are spent selling their catch fresh (prawns, bugs, crabs etc) to the public-in-the-know, who rock up with freezer bags and eskies. If you are looking for a beautiful way to spend a few hours or longer then Baxter’s Jetty is definitely in the perfect area.

Go early morning or early evening and you’re guaranteed to get stunning skies, bay breezes or a combo of the two. Also it’s completely flat and play areas abound, so the kids can cut loose while you stroll.

The suburb now known as Sandgate was originally known as Cabbage Tree Creek. The Aboriginals called the area Warra which means a stretch or expanse of water. For local Aboriginals, the Turrbal clan, Moreton Bay was known as Moora, meaning an open sheet of water. The Aboriginal people lived off the natural resources that the foreshore, creeks and wetlands of Moreton Bay provided. In 1823, huts were so numerous in the Shorncliffe foreshore that it was hard to count them.

Aboriginal people still keep a close relationship with the Shorncliffe-Sandgate area. It is recorded that the Turrbul people, who long inhabited the seashore, the creeks and lagoons, in what we know as the locality of Nudgee Beach to the Pine River, were a branch of the clan of the Yugarabul speaking people. This larger clan inhabited the area from North Brisbane and along the coastline of Nudgee, Sandgate to Caboolture.