Timothy Duffy was an Irish convict, who had been transported for highway robbery in 1822, and who became a familiar and well-liked figure in early Brisbane as the Bay Fisherman. His progress towards reform and respectability was slow, and some would say, incomplete. He liked a drink, hated a bailiff, and could curse with legendaryContinue reading “The Bay Fisherman.”
Author Archives: Karen B
Amateur historian and writer.
The preoccupations of a particular day.
I had wanted to get an understanding of the stories occupying the news, and what made people tick at a certain point in time. I used the very scientific method of picking a date at random, and looking through all of the articles in Queensland’s newspapers for that day. The random day was 26 JanuaryContinue reading “The preoccupations of a particular day.”
On this day – October 17.
October 17, 1830 – the Death of Captain Logan. In another age, when news travelled very slowly, a newspaper editor in Sydney was vigorously libeling a man he looked forward to meeting in Court shortly. It was October 1830, and Edward Smith Hall of the Monitor was busily publishing articles on the cruelty of CaptainContinue reading “On this day – October 17.”
Lantern slides of outback life.
The George Washington Wilson Company’s slides of the goldfields. Celebrated photographer George Washington Wilson didn’t make the journey to the goldfields of North Queensland in 1890. By then, he was in old age, and the journey would have been too taxing (besides, he was making enough money to have studios under his command). One ofContinue reading “Lantern slides of outback life.”
The Working Day on the Goldfields – Richard Daintree Photos.
Richard Daintree worked as a geological surveyor in 1870, travelling the vast colony of Queensland on horseback. He collected samples of minerals, noted areas of interest, and took photographs. He travelled with his camera equipment in a little wooden case, recording the extraordinary scenery, and the people working tirelessly to make a living in harsh,Continue reading “The Working Day on the Goldfields – Richard Daintree Photos.”
A Cure for Everything.
A brief guide to the patent medicines advertised so relentlessly throughout Old Queensland’s newspapers. Holloway’s Pills. Undoubtedly the greatest man of the day as an advertiser is Holloway, who expends the enormous sum of twenty thousand pounds annually in advertisements alone; his name is not only to be seen in nearly every paper and periodicalContinue reading “A Cure for Everything.”
Bowerman’s Board, Trial, and the Aftermath.
Board of Inquiry Above – left to right: the Board who heard Frank Bowerman’s charges. Left: Auditor-General Frederick Orme Darvall, Surveyor-General Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, Collector of Customs William Thornton. The official Board of Inquiry into three charges of misconduct against Frank Sydney Bowerman was convened with a speed modern public servants would find astonishing.Continue reading “Bowerman’s Board, Trial, and the Aftermath.”
Dalby, Leyburn and Infamy – Frank Bowerman’s Turbulent 1868.
Until October 1868, as far as the public knew, Frank S Bowerman was a minor civil servant on the Darling Downs. He was appointed as Police Magistrate at Leyburn in March. The first hint that all was not as it should be came with a story in the Dalby Herald on 10 October, in whichContinue reading “Dalby, Leyburn and Infamy – Frank Bowerman’s Turbulent 1868.”
The Bowermans in Queensland.
The first member of the Bowerman family to venture into what is now Queensland was Henry Boucher Bowerman in 1835. In the 1850s, his sons Henry, and later Frank took up residence on the Darling Downs, both keen to improve their prospects. Henry Bowerman and Coorangah Station. Henry Bowerman junior was a respectable, rather modestContinue reading “The Bowermans in Queensland.”
The Bowerman Inheritance.
Assistant Commissary Bowerman and family. The Bowerman family arrived in Sydney in 1825, where Henry Boucher Bowerman had been assigned as Assistant Commissary General. He spent time working at Port Macquarie, then Parramatta, where Frank Sydney Bowerman joined the family on 7 March 1828. Henry Bowerman senior became part of the colonial gentry, with goodContinue reading “The Bowerman Inheritance.”
Moreton Bay and More 