Brisbane’s first outpost at Redcliffe was founded in 1824. The settlement was established on 13 September 1824 as the Moreton Bay penal settlement, a British convict outpost for secondary offenders from the Sydney colony.
Lieutenant Henry Miller led the initial party to Redcliffe Point. The location proved unsuitable because of poor soil, limited fresh water and difficult conditions for supporting the settlement. In May 1825, the penal station was moved south to North Quay on the Brisbane River, at the site of present-day central Brisbane.
The new settlement was named for Sir Thomas Brisbane, then governor of New South Wales. It remained a harsh convict station until transportation ended in 1839, and the penal settlement formally closed in 1842. The district then opened to free European settlement and began developing into a major river port.
The year 1859 is an understandable distractor because Queensland separated from New South Wales that year, with Brisbane becoming the new colony’s capital. It marks Brisbane’s political importance, not the founding of its first outpost. The year 1824 refers specifically to the Redcliffe beginning.