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”

From Female Factories to Flying Piemen – “F” stories.

Female Factory, Queen Street The Female Factory was built during the Logan era of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement to house the unruly female offenders that Sydney was dying to get rid of. Security in the Queen Street facility was somewhat wanting, and, in order to protect the female convicts from unwanted attention from maleContinue reading “From Female Factories to Flying Piemen – “F” stories.”

The A-Z of Old Brisbane – Fairfield, Fig Tree Pocket and Fortitude Valley.

Fairfield Fairfield’s European history began around 1850, with the establishment of dairy farms in its wetlands. The photographs here show the gradual development from farming to suburb through the 19th and early 20th centuries. L: R Crump’s Family Butcher Shop on Boggo Road, c. 1894. R: Fairfield and Dutton Park area, 1920s (BCC). Fig TreeContinue reading “The A-Z of Old Brisbane – Fairfield, Fig Tree Pocket and Fortitude Valley.”

The Cat Nuisance.

The Goat Nuisance was a long-standing torment to colonial Queenslanders. Goats provided milk, small-cart transport, and a free mowing service to their doting owners. To those who lived in the vicinity of a goat-owner, the manure, noise and destruction of innocent flowerbeds was intolerable. Cats were kept to keep the mice and rats down, andContinue reading “The Cat Nuisance.”

“Poor devils like myself.”

Mentally Ill Prisoners at St Helena. John Haslem. Contemporary views of Muckadilla. On Monday 20 October 1879, the mail coach was on the outskirts of Muckadilla, a settlement between Roma and Charleville, when a man approached on foot. He presented a double-barreled gun and yelled, “Stop, bail up.” The coach didn’t immediately stop, apparently toContinue reading ““Poor devils like myself.””