Introduction
John Finnegan, Thomas Pamphlet, John Thompson, and Richard Parsons were travelling by sailboat from Sydney to Illawarra, taking a cargo of timber when they were blown off course by a gale. After a few weeks at sea, they were shipwrecked on Moreton Island on 15 April 1823. They walked north along the beach to Cape Moreton, then continued along the northern shore and down the western side of the island to the South Passage.
They crossed the South Passage to Stradbroke Island with the help of the natives of Amity Point, who they found most hospitable. Eventually they built a canoe, they crossed Moreton Bay to Peel Island and then to the mainland near Cleveland. They followed the Brisbane River upstream as far as Oxley Creek on foot, and then returned down the river by native canoe and on foot. They reached Redcliffe on 30 June, and by late September were at Pumice-stone Channel near Point Skirmish Bribie Island, enjoying the kind nature of the native chief.
Eventually, John Oxley found Pamphlet and Finnegan on November 29 & 30, 1823. Parsons had continued up north in search for Port Jackson (which was actually south). John Oxley found Parsons, after returning a second time to Moreton Bay in September 1824.
