Vera Huet (born 1902) came to Bribie with her family from 1919 staying at Glan-y-Mor boarding-house in Banya Street, Bongaree.

Her parents were Charles & Edith (Whitworth) Huet and her siblings: Charlie, Ruby and Harold. Charles senior was a Grocer by trade and the family lived at 47 Rosina Street, Kangaroo Point.

Vera and Charlie were keen photographers, and their little Box Brownie captured the family on their Bribie holidays. Vera and Charlie photographed not only the family, but photographed their fishing trips, their walks around Bongaree and over to “Ocean Beach” and picnics to the Lagoons. Their photographs of the boarding-house, shops, campers, picnickers are unique for their era as photographs were expensive to print.

The family album also contained photos taken by other keen Bribie photographers. One being, Robert (R.J.) Davies of the Glan-y-Mor boarding-house. R.J. was a keen photographer who published many of his photos in the Brisbane newspapers and sold them as postcards at the Jetty Kiosk he managed for the Brisbane Tug & Steamship Company.

Vera met Reg Campbell at Bribie. Reg had been working as a seaman on the SS Koopa and cut a romantic figure in his uniform. He appears in an early photograph taken at Glan-Y-Mor. Vera and Reg married in 1933 and shortly after opened Campbell’s Cash Store at South Esplanade, Bongaree. The store sold groceries, souvenirs, fishing tackle etc.

Vera’s brother Charlie also fell for a Campbell, marrying Reg’s sister Myrtle in 1932.

Reg’s family were pioneers in the Pumicestone Passage. His father, Joseph, who was raised on North Stradbroke Island, started working for James Clark managing his oyster farms in 1905 and they built a home at the mouth of Ningi Creek. Joe and wife Clara raised three children: Reg born 1898, Cecil and Myrtle. Joe, after 1912, built up a little business at South Esplanade renting out dinghies and fishing equipment to the holidaymakers.

Reg and Vera ran the little store until 1965 when they retired at South Esplanade in a cottage they called “Revehame". Reg passed away on Bribie Island in 1972 and Vera in 1983.

As Reg & Vera didn’t have children, she handed her photograph album to close friend and neighbour Ted Clayton. Ted ensured the Huet legacy wasn’t lost and gave copies of over 180 photographs to the Bribie Island Historical Society, Caboolture Shire Council and State Library of Queensland.

Written by Lynne Hooper from information in the BIHS Database and from conversations with Ted Clayton.