On June 4, 1878, a very old man passed away at Dunwich Benevolent Asylum at Stradbroke Island. He’d been there since 1869, when, aged 91, he could no longer take care of himself. That was a hard blow for a very independent man. Abraham Brown had been a mariner since the turn of the 19thContinue reading ““Old Trafalgar” Dies at Dunwich.”
Category Archives: Characters
The Various Identities of the Flying Pieman
In 1848, the Brisbane and Ipswich newspapers were fascinated by the presence of The Flying Pieman, William King, who arrived in this part of the colony and proceeded to perform a lot of highly popular feats of pedestrian endurance and speed. We were rather starved of entertainment in those days, so seeing a ribbon-bedecked chapContinue reading “The Various Identities of the Flying Pieman”
“What? Beer makes you drunk?”
A surprising discovery in Brisbane in the late 1840s. The great Australian tradition of drinking one’s wages arrived at Moreton Bay with the Europeans in 1824. Soldiers and public servants at the settlement had cellars, and enterprising convicts could sometimes lay their hands on some of their contents. Free settlement meant liquor licenses, public drinkingContinue reading ““What? Beer makes you drunk?””
Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 3.
The Sketch Map of Brisbane Town in 1844, and the stories behind it. 31. Taylor Shappart There was no Taylor Shappart in Brisbane in 1844. There was a tailor, John Sheppard, who lived and worked at Brisbane at the time, and later moved to Ipswich. I suspect that between the Gerler’s understanding of English namesContinue reading “Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 3.”
Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 2
The Sketch Map of Brisbane Town in 1844, and the stories behind it. 16. Wright’s Hotel At first, hotels were few in old Brisbane Town. The hospitable Scot, Alexander Wright, was the proprietor of one of the larger and more respectable ones, The Caledonian Hotel, between Queen and Ann Streets. Mr Wright boasted of theContinue reading “Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 2”
Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 1.
The Sketch Map of Brisbane Town in 1844, and the stories behind it. A rough, sketched map of Brisbane town in 1844 reposes in the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. It is attributed to Carl Friedrich Gerler, who arrived in Brisbane as a missionary to the Zion Hill establishment in 1844. The buildingsContinue reading “Who Lives in a Place Like This? Part 1.”
True Crime in 1840s Brisbane
As reported by the Moreton Bay Courier With the exception of the murder of Robert Cox at Kangaroo Point in 1848, and the relatively distant frontier violence perpetrated by and on European settlers, life was fairly quiet in Moreton Bay in the 1840s. Still, there are columns to fill, and readers to shock, so theContinue reading “True Crime in 1840s Brisbane”
Another Despatch from the Windmill Reporter.
Moreton Bay Courier, 25 December 1852. From our Windmill Reporter Pistol HOT weather, and hard work at Charet’s[i] celebrated gold field in this neighbourhood, make me little inclined to communicate with you after my long silence, more especially as I am rather alarmed about one Pistol[ii], whose admiring friends run about frightening all the oldContinue reading “Another Despatch from the Windmill Reporter.”
The Five Stages of Inebriation and the 19th Century Scribe.
The court reporters of the 19th century had a distinctive turn of phrase. Flowery and humorous when describing the fairly harmless activities of the town tosspots, their penny-a-lining output is best illustrated by “The Five Stages of Inebriation,” a series of photographs taken in the 1860s by Charles Percy Pickering. (These gems, currently reposing theContinue reading “The Five Stages of Inebriation and the 19th Century Scribe.”
Psyche Goes to Gaol
Mary Maher might have been unfortunate, might have haunted the streets, but she was far from forlorn. Mary Maher had a decent job as a cook in Brisbane’s hotels in the 1910s. She liked a drink, and found herself increasingly unable to indulge in moderation. Sadly this cost her a number of jobs and residences,Continue reading “Psyche Goes to Gaol”
Moreton Bay and More 