MORETON BAY

shallow inlet of the Pacific Ocean, indenting southeastern Queensland, Australia. Sheltered on the north by Bribie Island and on the east and south by Moreton and Stradbroke islands, the bay measures 65 by 20 miles (105 by 32 km). It is filled with numerous shoals, and some low islands lie to the south. In 1770 the British navigator Captain James Cook sailed through South Passage between the main offshore islands leading to the bay, which he named after James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton. The name, misspelled, was also originally applied to the mainland area that eventually became Queensland. The bay, explored in 1823 by John Oxley, was the site of the state's first settlement, a penal colony established in 1824 at Redcliffe. Receiving the Brisbane River, the bay is the gateway to the port of Brisbane, with the primary shipping channel passing between Bribie and Moreton. Its waters yield game and commercial fish.