Coochiemudlo - A Mariner’s Mystery

A Question of Latitude for Edward Field Jones

About the book (RELEASED SOON)

The Late Edward (Ted) Field Jones lived on Coochiemudlo Island in Moreton Bay for 47 years. On researching the 1799 voyage of British Explorer, Captain Matthew Flinders that followed the eastern coastline of Australia north to Moreton Bay, Ted learned that, after nearly 170 years, the identity of one of six islands Flinders named by number was still in doubt. Ted Jones decided to solve the mystery.

Ted was not an academic or a professional historian, but he carried a trump card that experts on Moreton Bay lacked; during WWII, he was an aviation navigator and could read a map. Ted’s battle to prove that Coochiemudlo was the Sixth Island became an obsession. Refusing to give up, he was eventually vindicated and gained the recognition he struggled to achieve.

Coochiemudlo Island is as much a character in this tale as is Ted Jones. Tales of island life through the 1960s, 1970s and beyond, weave together the lives of ‘Coochie’ locals and events that ultimately bring irreversible change to a small island.