On Saturday 20 June 1846, the Moreton Bay Courier was published for the first time. Four years had passed since free settlers had been allowed in to the district, and some enterprising individuals decided that a local newspaper would be just the ticket for an outpost of New South Wales, some 500 miles from the seat of Government.
Aside from a lengthy introductory leader, what was on the Courier’s mind for its first issue?
The First Journey to Ipswich by the “Experiment.”
In Moreton Bay in 1846, if you wanted to get from one place to another, your options were limited. Railways were nearly two decades away, limiting a traveller’s choices to traversing rough bush tracks by horse or on foot, or by boat if there was a navigable body of water connecting the locations. Freight travelled by boat, or by bullock team.
Ipswich, formerly the Limestone Station of convict years, had the advantage of being on a river that connected it with Brisbane and the Bay. The launch of the Steamer Experiment, which could convey passengers in comfort, as well as freight, was auspicious for the prosperity of both towns.
What a pity it ran aground. The unscheduled stop made the journey a two-day affair. Everyone concerned made the best if things, though.
THE “EXPERIMENT.” This steamer started from North Brisbane on her experimental trip to Ipswich on Wednesday morning last. Mr Pearce, the owner, and a select party on board, were warmly greeted as they passed up the river by a large concourse of spectators, who had assembled to witness her departure.
Owing to the imperfect knowledge of the person acting as pilot, respecting the river flats, she got aground near the crossing place at Woogaroo, and was detained until daylight the following morning, when she proceeded on her voyage and reached her destination at one o’clock.
The Ipswich folks were quite delighted at her appearance amongst them, and expressed their satisfaction by giving a hearty reception to Mr Pearce and all on board.
Mr Pearce intends to accommodate parties of pleasure desirous of visiting the Bay, and other favourite places, with the use of the steamer, should it be required for such a purpose.
There is no doubt that may persons will gladly avail themselves of the opportunity to take trips down the river during the summer season. She has excellent accommodations, consisting of gentlemen and ladies’ cabin, as well as a spacious steerage.
Spacious steerage, eh? How comforting.
The New Governor.
New South Wales, the colony that Moreton Bay would belong to for another thirteen years, was about to receive its new Governor. Such was the journey from England to Australia that His Excellency departed in April, and was not expected until August.
The impending viceroy was one Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy KCG, KH, a direct descendant of none other than King Charles II and his most extravagant and controversial mistress, Barbara Villiers.
Sir Charles was replacing the distinctly unpopular Sir George Gipps, who, in one act, condemned generations of Brisbane residents to gridlocked misery by ordering the city streets to be narrower. After all, no-one was going to use those wretched streets, were they?
Sir Charles was a capable administrator, and a much more conciliatory character. If only we’d waited for a Fitzroy government when considering our town planning.
True Crime.
The first ever crime report was published in the first issue, shocking the populace with the gritty details.
CHARGE OF THEFT. At the Police-office on Friday, a prisoner of the crown, named George Craig, was placed at the bar charged with stealing some articles of wearing apparel, the property of the mate of the steamer Tamar. The prisoner, who is one of the pilot’s boat crew, was remanded until the arrival of the prosecutor.
Cemetery Maintenance.
The Courier was shocked at the disregard Brisbanites showed the old Burial Ground at North Brisbane. At the time, it consisted of the grave of Granville Stapylton, the murdered surveyor, some of the soldiers stationed at the settlement and few of the local settlers who had met their Maker in recent years. Consensus seems to place this cemetery around Saul and Skew streets, probably at E E McCormick place.[i]
The convict burial ground was closer to the convict barracks, probably around Herschel Street and North Quay. There were also several graves on the riverbank at North Quay, overlooking South Brisbane. These were the graves of children of the soldiers, quite touchingly elaborate, and were placed to face out to the river. They are visible in one of the paintings of later years.
THE OLD BURIAL GROUND. Perhaps there is no position more unpalatable for a public writer to be placed in than in which it is his duty to censure the community with whom he makes his acquaintance for the first time. In addressing the inhabitants of Brisbane, through the columns of their local newspaper, it would be our wish as well as our interest to greet them with a flattering notice of their many good qualities – of their regard for, and attention to, the decencies of life.
In this dilemma there is only one course open to us, and we trust our readers will give us credit for the sincerity of motive in offering to their consideration a few remarks on the present disgraceful state of the old burial ground in North Brisbane.
The neatness of similar places in Europe, combining the idea of solitude and repose which such scenes inspire, with the care bestowed by affectionate surviving relatives on the last resting place of those once dear to them, is in painful contrast to the neglected state of the graves here.
There is not even a fence to restrain pigs and other animals from rooting around and roving over the dwellings of the dead. If something is not done shortly, we may chance to witness the remains of those interred exposed to public view. Such an occurrence, it is true, is not likely to happen; but its bare possibility should be an inducement to the inhabitants to take instant steps to secure the ground from the intrusion of quadrupeds. Surely the authorities might have saved the town the reproach that is now attached to it, if they had employed the government men for the purpose to which we have alluded. We shall be gratified to learn that our suggestions have been attended to, and that some kind of fence will shortly be placed round the spot.
And today?
175 years later. Well, it’s doubtful that Arthur Sydney Lyon, James Swan and William Wilkes would imagine the changes history has brought on the town, and its newspaper. The old broadsheet has become a tabloid, under the ownership of News Limited. It assumes of its readers an abiding fascination with rugby league (in particular the Brisbane Broncos), and no interest whatsoever in events beyond the State border, by keeping any world or national news tucked well away from the front pages. Those front pages are devoted to headlines about Anastacia Palaszczuk’s labour State Government, rugby league updates, and crime (currently the new inquest into the 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire).
Say something nice. The masthead type is similar to the old Moreton Bay Courier, and that’s comforting in a changing world.
[i]The main cemetery was soon relocated to Hale Street, over the hill in the wilds of Paddington, where surely the growth of the town would never encroach. This became untenable a few decades later, and most of the departed were moved to Toowong General Cemetery, with only a few memorial headstones remaining at Paddington. The land in Paddington, which may not have been as thoroughly cleared of graves as people had hoped, then became a rubbish dump, and later Lang Park. And later Suncorp Stadium. Local rugby league players reported that injuries received in the old Lang Park in the 1950s became infected, and often septic, which they attributed to the soil being partly tainted by rubbish and partly by the typhoid-ridden graves of the Victorian dead.
Moreton Bay and More 