It gives us a date and a place – Mount Victoria on 18 September 1892. The setting is a quite charming cottage with a brick chimney, somewhere in the countryside. The edges of the photo are blurred, there are 30 figures posed in front of the house, and the silhouette of a woman indoors. ThereContinue reading “A Group Photo for the Ages.”
Author Archives: Karen B
Amateur historian and writer.
Panoramas of Old Brisbane.
Windmill Hill, or as it became later, Wickham Terrace, afforded townsfolk an outstanding view of Brisbane Town. Several photographers stood more or less on the same spot and recorded the view through the 19th and early 20th centuries in a series of panoramas. In the process, they recorded enormous growth, historic buildings under construction, andContinue reading “Panoramas of Old Brisbane.”
The Mackay district in glass plate negatives.
One of the many glass plate negative series in the State Library’s digital collection shows people and scenery in the Mackay area around the 1870s-1880s. There aren’t many pictures, and some are badly damaged. Others depict First Nations people, and I’m uncomfortable about uploading those, given cultural sensitivities, and the fact that the photographs wereContinue reading “The Mackay district in glass plate negatives.”
The Past in Colour.
Lantern Slides and Tinted Slides The first set of colourised slides of Brisbane in the State Library collection depict the flood of 1893. Adding some (slight) colour to them brings out some detail that would be lost in black and white, particularly the height of the water compared to the banks and houses. Brisbane landmarksContinue reading “The Past in Colour.”
How does your flower garden grow?
As a companion piece to the kitchen garden post, here are some Queenslanders enjoying their outdoor spaces. The special gardening calendar, written by botanist Walter Hill for Pugh’s Almanac, is extracted here. Above left: Hon. Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, relaxing after a spot of gardening. Above right: “Young lady tending her garden in Ipswich, cContinue reading “How does your flower garden grow?”
How does your garden grow?
The Kitchen Garden. Pugh’s Almanac was the search engine of the emerging colony of Queensland. One could turn to Pugh’s to settle a dinner-table dispute as to the exact date of Emperor Maximilian’s shooting (19 June 1867), find the best navigation route for Bustard’s Bay, and locate an official stamp vendor in North Brisbane. AndContinue reading “How does your garden grow?”
Greeting Cards and Postcards
How do we represent ourselves when we send greetings to friends far away? In the digital age, the options are bewildering. In the pre-digital age, we were at the mercy of local photographers of varying levels of skill. A survey of postcards and greeting cards from the 19th century is nothing if not instructive. FromContinue reading “Greeting Cards and Postcards”
A Visit to the Ekka (or the Show).
(Translation for non-Queenslanders: A visit to the Royal National Association Exhibition, an annual city-country fair held in Brisbane. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors over its fortnight of operation. Sort of like a State Fair. Because Australians in general and Queenslanders in particular have to shorten names, it became “the Ekka.” In my family,Continue reading “A Visit to the Ekka (or the Show).”
From Governors to George Street.
More “G” Stories from Old Brisbane. Governors and their legacies. Sir George Bowen Sir George Ferguson Bowen (1821-1899) was the first Governor of Colonial Queensland. He took the usual route to success for a gentleman of his time – Charterhouse, Trinity College (Oxford), Lincoln’s Inn, the navy and the Colonial Service. One of his firstContinue reading “From Governors to George Street.”
From Gaythorne to Gumdale
The A-Z of Old Brisbane in Photos Most of the suburbs in the “G” list of Brisbane suburbs were photographed in the very late 19th century through to the late 20th century. The Brisbane City Council’s Brisbane Images collection supply most of the 20th century photos. And some of them are from a very CityContinue reading “From Gaythorne to Gumdale”
Moreton Bay and More 