MORGAN THOMPSON: OUR FIRST COVER GIRL, VOL 1, NO 1.
When we produced our very first ever edition of The Friendly Bay Islander, we thought it needed to be an attractive cover that would grab the attention of island readers.
We also thought a pretty girl would do nicely, and who better than a member of The Friendly Bay Islander family!
So the young lady who graced our very first every cover of Vol 1, No1, just happened to be Morgan Gray.
Just 21 at the time, she was the fiancee of Dane Thompson son of the owners of The Friendly Bay Islander, Gerard and Glenda Thompson.
Morgan is not only an attractive young woman, but she has an extensive marketing background, particularly in the University industry, being associated with Monash University in Melbourne and more recently with Griffith University in Queensland.
Morgan and Dane were married in 2014 and now live in a lovely setting in the Gold Coast hinterland.
They were fortunate to welcome into the family just over a month ago, a lovely young son, Oliver Dane.
And, we are happy to say, that the young family graces the cover in this 10th anniversary edition.
• Morgan, Oliver and Dane Thompson in our 10th anniversary cover picture!.
OUR FIRST EDITION, Vol 1, No 1, OCTOBER 2011
The very first edition of The Friendly Bay Islander was produced mid October 2011. It was issue Vol 1, No 1.
The edition was titled ‘We’d Like to Say HELLO’, and for our very first edition, it was a quite remarkable 24 pages produced in high quality full gloss paper colour.
We are still produced in high gloss colour to this day, but now we average 80 pages per edition; a wonderful achievement of growth and development.
Many elements of that first edition still continue to this day including our page 2 editorial and the columns Time n Tide and Island Getabout pictures.
There were special features in that first edition that included a three-page promotion for Curious Cottages with Sandra Scott and Craig Shanks.
There was also a special three page feature on changes to the Bay Islands Golf Club.
Significantly, there were a number of advertisers in that first edition who are still advertising with us to this day.
They include the Russell Island Supa IGA and Spar Supermarkets,T Barclay Real Estate the Bay Islands Golf Club, as well as Titan Sheds.
Back in 2011, the magazine was also supported by the businesses at the Emerald Isle Shopping Village as well as some old faces that are no longer in business including Eleeza Zlatic’s Lemon Farm Organic Markets which started at about the same time as The Friendly Bay Islander.
There were some other businesses that are no longer here such as Amy’s Cash n Save Furniture, Jeanette Byrnes’ Data and Banking and Gold Real estate that had a two-page feature. It was based on Russell Island and involved Steve Morgan back then.
Steve, fortunately, is associated with The Friendly Bay Islander to this day as a good friend and helps us with our IT and Radio FBI.
To all those advertisers who helped us get started way back then, we thank you oh so much.
The magazine continued to go from strength to strength to eventually become known as the ‘Island Bible’ because of its close links to the island community on six of the islands of Moreton Bay.
• The cover of the very first edition of The Friendly Bay Islander
