On September 13, 1824, the first penal colony in Queensland was established at "Red Cliffs Point". This moved to the Brisbane River the following year and it was not until the end of the 19th century that Redcliffe was repopulated. After the transport connections were improved in the 1930s, the settlement grew into a city with around 10,000 inhabitants today (as of 2016).
The career of the pop group The Bee Gees, which was particularly successful around the world in the late 1960s and 70s, began in Redcliffe .