Cribb Island

Cribb Island is a former suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, which is now part of the site of Brisbane Airport. The suburb is perhaps best known for being the childhood home of the Gibb brothers who later became famous as The Bee Gees.

'Cribbie' as it was known by the locals consisted of two areas which were made up of Cribb Island and Jackson's Estate. The entire area of Cribb Island which was about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) long and 400 metres wide was built on essentially a mud flat that faced Moreton Bay. In the 1970s, the land was resumed by the Federal Government to expand the Brisbane Airport's capability for the larger jets ('Heavies') used in international flights.

Cribb Island also gave its name to a local variety of marine worm (probably Onuphis sp. Fam. Eunicidae), popular with fishermen as bait.

The original area of Cribb Island was populated in 1884 by a tribe of approximately 50 Indigenous Australian people, who bartered their locally caught fish and mud crabs for bread and potatoes from the early European settlers.

Cribb Island received its name from John George Cribb (1830—1905). He was the son of Robert Cribb, an alderman of the Town of Brisbane and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. John George Cribb bought 150 acres (0.61 km²) of land from the Queensland Government in 1863. In 1885, Cribb sold 65 of those acres to James Jackson for the purpose of growing bananas. This area became known as Jackson's Estate. The land that wasn't used by Jackson was leased out to livestock farmers.

There was only one road into Cribb Island. At first, as this road was floated on top of logs across the mud-flat, it was susceptible to flooding and brief periods of inaccessibility. This changed in 1914 when a better road was built. The area was then accessible for standard motor vehicles.

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