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”
Tag Archives: Characters
Harry Shepperson: the stationer who ran away with the actress.
NOTABLE BRISBANE PIONEERS Henry William Shepperson was a well-known and respectable book-seller and stationer in Brisbane in the 1860s and 1870s. He produced beautiful calendars and religious pamphlets for St John’s Anglican Cathedral. Harry was active in the Masons, and was married with children, two of whom sadly died in infancy. He was an enthusiasticContinue reading “Harry Shepperson: the stationer who ran away with the actress.”
Thomas Warry
Notable Brisbane Pioneers Old Brisbane throws up some unusual characters, not least the distinguished Thomas Symes Warry. In his relatively short life, he was a prize-winning chemist, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, Magistrate and, briefly, the centre of a peculiar scandal involving the possession of a severed head. Thomas S Warry was born inContinue reading “Thomas Warry”
Lewis the Swift and the Same Old Joe
Brisbane’s newspaper classifieds were enlivened considerably in the 1870s by a gentleman who signed himself “Lewis the Swift.” Lewis was a builder by trade, willing to quote on big jobs and small, and able to branch out into sanitary works, business agency and just about anything his lively business mind turned to. His ads areContinue reading “Lewis the Swift and the Same Old Joe”
A Tragic Mystery
In early September 1889, wealthy publican and landowner William Goodwin Geddes discovered that his son, who had disappeared (presumed drowned) at Toorbul near Caboolture in 1877, was still alive. That was the good news. The bad news was that his son resided in a Lunatic Asylum in Adelaide. The worse news was that the AMPContinue reading “A Tragic Mystery”
“Old Trafalgar” Dies at Dunwich.
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.”
“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.”
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.”
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