Crowd scene showing residents and supporters of Cribb Island Queensland, 1980

John Maxwell Ross, better known as Jack, lived in the Brisbane suburb of Nudgee Beach, near Cribb Island, and took these photographs during the island community's last days. 'Cribby', as it was known, was the first Brisbane suburb entirely destroyed to make way for new development, in this case the expansion of Brisbane Airport. It had developed as a beachside holiday destination, a forerunner of the communities of owner-built holiday shacks that would later spring up in many bayside areas. After World War One a more permanent community emerged on Cribb. Historian Jack Ford records that it would eventually boast a state school, a convent school, two churches, a post office, a police station, a medical clinic, a kiosk, a cinema and a private bus service. The land was resumed by the Commonwealth Government in 1970 and over the next decade the community was dispersed