THE STRANGE WORLD OF THE EARLY 1870s, AS SEEN IN THE CLASSIFIEDS The School of the Arts, hitherto a rather stodgy institution, offered the most peculiar entertainments in the early 1870s. Not since the outbreak of wizardry in the 1850s had Brisbane flocked to anything like Chapman’s Wonders: Legerdemain effects involve sleight of hand, presumablyContinue reading “A Sack of Ghosts, Desiccated Canaries, Kilts v Trousers”
Author Archives: Karen B
Amateur historian and writer.
The Trials of Annie Clarke
Annie Clarke saw a great deal of courtrooms during her colourful career in Northern Queensland. Some extracts from the reports of her hearings at Millchester gathered here show the times she lived in – times when women who had sex with men they were not married to were not entitled to be believed as witnesses.Continue reading “The Trials of Annie Clarke”
The Marrying Kind
Bigamy in Colonial Queensland – PART TWO Annie Clarke must have been quite a gal. She scandalised three colonies, underwent at least six marriage ceremonies, and created news wherever she went. Who she actually was is hard to pin down, probably because of the number of husbands and surnames she racked up in a hecticContinue reading “The Marrying Kind”
“A Double Fraud, Double Treachery and Double Infamy.”
Judge Innes, Rockhampton District Court, 17 June 1867, sentencing a bigamist. Bigamy in Colonial Queensland – PART ONE Moreton Bay Courier, 1859 Whoever W.H.G. of Nanango was, he or she would have done well to take note of Brown’s Billy’s warning in the Courier’s classifieds in October,1859. Bigamy attracted stiff sentences of penal servitude, notContinue reading ““A Double Fraud, Double Treachery and Double Infamy.””
A Polite, English Education
Education from the convict era to Separation The Convict Era The first European school in Queensland was free, open to all, and had a very low student-to-teacher ratio – just what parents would hope for in a State School today. It was the Moreton Bay penal settlement free school, which opened in 1826. It cateredContinue reading “A Polite, English Education”
Just Call Him “Lord”
NOTABLE BRISBANE PIONEERS – ARTHUR BULGIN “The emigrants per the Chaseley resemble in character and views those per the Fortitude. They consist, first, of respectable families, going out to settle on small farms, under the auspices of the Company, and to grow cotton and other tropical productions, in addition to those of Europe; second, ofContinue reading “Just Call Him “Lord””
Courtroom Sketches
The glories of 19th century court reporting have been explored here before, with the emphasis on the flights of fancy indulged in by the Moreton Bay Courier’s scribes. As wondrous as the Courier’s prose can be, it could never compete with the Police Register columns of Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer. Here areContinue reading “Courtroom Sketches”
Portraits in Crime Part 2
Some of the Stories Behind the Longreach Collection Charles Fox was convicted of false pretences – he had passed a cheque for £4 that was valueless. He made a reasonable impression on the Judge by pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity, but he couldn’t supply any character references. He’d lost them. He looks pretty confidentContinue reading “Portraits in Crime Part 2”
Portraits in Crime Part 1
In the late 1890s, Queensland Courts began granting probation orders, and regional police stations and lockups started to record the released offenders with photographs and detailed descriptions. The photographs here are from a collection at the Queensland State Archives, Photographic records and descriptions of released male prisoners – Police Station, Longreach, 01/01/1889 – 31/12/1899. ManyContinue reading “Portraits in Crime Part 1”
Reviewing a Much Sought-After Work
(From our Windmill Reporter.) This publication has at last been most unexpectedly placed in my hands. It is a second edition of a work for which the same authors had found a great demand for, but which was only indifferently got up. The new plate is a vast improvement and causes the production to beContinue reading “Reviewing a Much Sought-After Work”
Moreton Bay and More 