“At the back of Rankin and Morrow’s Store, George Street, was large waterhole, a continuation of a chain of these running from the present Market reserve. The town was supplied with water for domestic purposes from this. There was no enclosure of any kind or any convenience of raising water. The waterman simply backed their drays into the water and with rope and bucket filled their casks usually three for a load and sold at 9d. per cask.
“What is lost in transparent purity was compensated by being both food and water, more especially after thunderstorms. This was a favourite resort for dogs to get a luxurious bath. There were no galvanised tanks in those days and the great objection to catching water from the roofs was the houses were all shingled and discoloured the water.”
Thomas Roper – A Walk Through Old Brisbane.
2026 note:
I regret that I did not cite the original information on the Roper story. I had found it on a now-defunct local history website, and couldn’t find the original newspaper or journal information. After this was brought to my attention, I have located links for two articles reproduced on the website of Mr Roper’s descendants (along with a lot of other splendid information). The Thomas Roper stories can be found at:
https://www.halenet.com.au/~jvbryant/fortlet1.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com#anchor732011
https://www.halenet.com.au/~jvbryant/fortlet1.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com#anchor730495
Moreton Bay and More 
WHAT is the source reference for the Thomas Roper articles about early Brisbane? Are they published or unpublished? If published, WHERE and WHEN? If unpublished: WHERE do the manuscripts reside and under what designation. Because if NO source reference is given, the information is essentially useless and the document cannot be found and checked by anyone else. I have attempted to find them via ‘Trove’; nothing. I have tried to search for ‘Thomas Roper’ in the John Oxley library catalogue: nothing.
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Hello Sylvia, thank you for getting in touch. When I wrote that article in 2021, I used the quote from a website called “Brisbane History,” which is sadly now defunct. I recall that the site extracted and republished a lot of old newspaper articles about Old Brisbane. There were recollections from the likes of Meston and Thomas Petrie. And wonderful maps with location pointers that linked to State Library photographs of sites in the 19th century. When the site folded, I found most of the articles they had used in Trove, but also couldn’t find the Roper article. I wish, in retrospect, that I’d linked the site and article at the time. I apologise for the issue that this has caused. Kind regards, Karen
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