How the Old Windmill nearly disappeared in 1850. The oldest surviving building in Queensland, built by convicts for convicts, was very nearly demolished in 1850. It’s hard to imagine Wickham Terrace without the sail-less Windmill, set slightly back from the road and surrounded by trees. Since 1828, it has been a grain grinding and punishmentContinue reading ““Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark.””
Category Archives: Our Windmill Reporter
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”
Strange Trick of the Imagination
(From our Windmill Reporter.) On Wednesday last, the Tide Surveyor of Customs* happened to be strolling down Queen Street, pondering probably on the great degeneracy of the present age, so far as regards the desire to drink grog without paying the duty, and whistling to himself the popular air of “Will Watch, the bold smuggler,Continue reading “Strange Trick of the Imagination”
A Transportation Procession
As imagined by the Windmill Reporter. 1850 was drawing to a close, and the population of Brisbane Town – estimated at some 2000 souls – was contemplating how best to make a success of the settlement. That is, the part of the population that thought about such things. Most people were wondering where their nextContinue reading “A Transportation Procession”
Their lot is not a happy one.
Just look what they have to wear. Pity the modern police officers patrolling the Queen Street Mall on a hot summer’s day, lugging around their belts full of assorted law enforcement goodies – comms, tazers, pepper spray, truncheons and the like. All the better to be prepared for a turbulent populace. At least the modernContinue reading “Their lot is not a happy one.”
KANGAROO POINT INTELLIGENCE
Before the Windmill, our intrepid reporter was stationed at Kangaroo Point, across the river from Old Brisbane Town. His location did not provide him a great deal of material for his columns, but he took the opportunity to provide some fine comedy about his fruitless search for copy. For historical context, the gruesome murder ofContinue reading “KANGAROO POINT INTELLIGENCE”
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 Windmill Reporter Predicts a Flood, 1848.
TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCH. (From our Windmill Reporter.) The Flood. I am happy to inform you that my elevated position has given me an opportunity of reporting to you the intended proceedings of the flood which has been for the last six years expected in Brisbane. The right wing of the flood will land at South Brisbane,Continue reading “The Windmill Reporter Predicts a Flood, 1848.”
How 1849 came to Brisbane
From the Windmill Reporter When the iron tongue of the Experiment’s bell announced to the universe the arrival of midnight, strange and diabolical sounds issued from the neighbourhood of South Brisbane. A combination of roaring, yelling, singing, and huzzaing, mingled with the spirited barking of youthful dogs, and the melancholy howling of the more agedContinue reading “How 1849 came to Brisbane”
Moreton Bay and More 