Dux Hut

On a deserted western beach on the northern tip of South Stradbroke Island visitors may glimpse a remnant of the early oystering days of Moreton Bay and the Southern Bay Islands. Dux Hut is built of posts and saplings held together with wire, strings and nails. It is clad in an ad hoc collection of corrugated iron sheets. German immigrant Augie Dux was first involved in his father's fishing, crabbing and oystering activities off Bribie Island in the 1880s. In the early 1900s he moved to Southern Moreton Bay, working for the Moreton Bay Oyster Company at Currigee on South Stradbroke Island. After marrying a local girl in 1905, Augie established his family at Southport. In 1918 he built a house of saplings and bark with a hardwood floor at Labrador. When the family built a more substantial timber house in 1939, the sapling house was relocated to one of Augie's oyster leases on South Stradbroke Island. Augie and his son Stan rebuilt the house, as well as a timber jetty to access it. The location became known as Dux Anchorage. The family retained their oyster lease until 1957, and it was transferred to other operators until the 1980s.