Many of us have experienced difficult neighbours at some stage, but it would be hard to find anyone worse than Mr Higgins, a circus owner who operated from an allotment of land in Brisbane on the corner of George and Turbot Streets, during the late 1880s.

The unfortunate next-door neighbour, Mr Jarvis, who was a venetian-blind manufacturer, took Mr Higgins to court because of their irreconcilable differences, which came to a head because Mr Higgins’ lease on the allotment of land was not due to expire for another thirteen years! The case was brought before Sir Charles Lilley at the Supreme Court and was reported in The Brisbane Courier, Thursday 6 June 1889.

  Sir Charles Lilley, ca. 1879. Image Number 73094.

The period language in the newspaper report lends to the humour of the story, so chunky quotes have been inserted in to this retelling. I’m quite sure, though, that Mr Jarvis wouldn’t have seen the funny side of this story as it was unfolding. Here is the litany of complaints he levelled at Mr Higgins:

‘on or about the month of August, 1888, the defendant [Mr Higgins] took possession of a vacant allotment of land at the corner of George and Turbot streets, next to the premises of the plaintiff [Mr Jarvis], and deposited thereon his menagerie, consisting of a number of wild and ferocious animals and reptiles; that the said allotment of land was insecurely enclosed by a wooden hoarding built for the purpose of bill-posting; that through the negligence of the defendant and his servants, animals had from time to time escaped from the said allotment, and caused damage and great consternation and annoyance to the public, and especially to the plaintiff and the members of his family; that the plaintiff was still in great fear that the animals would again escape and seriously injure him and his family; that defendant had permitted putrefying heaps of animal excreta and refuse to accumulate immediately beneath the windows of plaintiff’s house; that the odours arising from these accumulations had been, and continued to be, highly offensive and prejudicial to the health of plaintiff and his family; that in order to avoid this annoyance plaintiff had been compelled to keep his window closed, and deprive himself and his family of proper ventilation; that defendant kept open his menagerie daily, except on Sundays, and employed certain musical instruments, which produced an incessant and irritating sound, whereby the health of plaintiff and his family had been endangered.’

From the outset, Mr Higgins was unconcerned with the comfort or well-being of his neighbour:

‘As soon as defendant got fairly established he commenced to deposit the excreta of the animals about 20ft from the plaintiff’s boundary, and to burn it up with straw, causing a most disgusting and disagreeable smoke.’

…and then, of course, there was the problem of the wild animals continually escaping:

‘the menagerie was kept in such a way as to keep him and his family and those about him in a continual state of terror. In November last one of the tigers escaped from its cage, and in sight of plaintiff’s house worried a man. It was true that the defendant showed wonderful courage on that occasion, and that, armed only with a small riding whip he rescued the man from death, but that did not render it any safer for the plaintiff to live in the vicinity of the menagerie. On another occasion a tiger quietly walked into plaintiff’s workshop, and by its mere presence summarily dispersed the workmen, and before the escape of the tiger previously referred to, a monkey had invaded plaintiff’s bedroom. Dingoes had also been allowed to come about the place, and there appeared in every way to be great carelessness in the management of the menagerie…The annoyance was increased in that it interfered with his wife, who carried on a dress-making business. She employed several young girls, who were so frightened that every time the tigers growled they imagined that another tiger had broken loose.’

If that wasn’t enough, the dodgy animal accommodation caused all sorts of chaos. Mr Higgins’ five tigers, five dingoes, a cheetah, a panther, a leopard and numerous monkeys were contained in cages and placed under a tent. The unhappy ending of that arrangement was inevitable:

‘[the plaintiff’s] discomfort was further added to by the fact that the tent in which the menagerie was carried on once caught fire. Only last night it collapsed, being blown down by the high wind which prevailed.’

As a result of all of this unmonitored activity, the Jarvis family’s health was duly affected:

‘One Sunday in November, while witness was lying down in his bedroom, between sleeping and waking, he was startled by seeing a monkey standing on the dressing-table, opposite the looking-glass. When the tiger escaped, witness was suffering from vomiting and symptoms of fits, and, what with the dogs screaming and the general row created by the menagerie, he thought he would die.

…The barrel-organ which defendant employed had shattered the nerves of plaintiff’s baby, and two Sundays ago the growling of the tigers caused the child to have fits.’

 

Author’s note:

This newspaper report was located while researching Thomas Pennington Lucas’s futuristic tale about Brisbane, The Curse and Its Cure (1894). Many of the historical allusions in this novel were based on actual Brisbane events, so when I found a reference on page eighteen of Curse to a period in Brisbane’s history when tigers were housed as respectable citizens in a Brisbane street, I did a keyword search in the Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803 to 1954 database, and uncovered this fabulous article. If you would like to find out whether or not Mr Jarvis was successful in his case against Mr Higgins then you may like to do some follow-up keyword searches in this database, as this is only a report of the first part of the hearing of the case.  (Find this database by going to State Library’s home page, under the heading, ‘Collections’, click on ‘newspapers’, then locate the link to the database in the right-hand column on that page.)

Dr Leanne Day, Queensland Author & Legal Deposit Librarian

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A collection of papers in the John Oxley Library that form the archive of the Gubar - Canuk - Mekhonoshin families, created by Paula (Polina) Gubar, has been made more accessible to English speakers thanks to the work of Ms Nataliya Samokhina.

     

After completing a six week fieldwork placement at the State Library of Queensland to have her librarianship qualifications recognised in Australia, Nataliya, formerly Head of Department for Students of Secondary School at the Ryazan Regional Children’s Library in the Russian Federation, is currently a volunteer in the Heritage Collections Unit.

During her fieldwork placement Nataliya created an information guide (already used by grateful researchers in the John Oxley Library Reading Room) on Russian related collection items in the John Oxley Library. Whilst working on this project Nataliya became particularly interested in the Gubar Family Photographs and Papers.

In the past few months Nataliya has translated Paula Gubar’s travelling diary of 1924, a selection of letters, and various documents including passports, certificates, and notebooks.

Paula Gubar, nee Canuk, was born in 1911. Her family, originally from the Ukraine, left Russia on 12 Jan 1925 from Vladivostok. They travelled from Russia to Australia via Shanghai - Nagasaki - Hong-Kong - Manila - Philippines - Thursday Island - Townsville - Brisbane.

Paula studied at Brenda McCullough’s ballet school and worked at Borsht’s dress-making factory at South Brisbane. She later started a shop at 577 Stanley Street, where she made clothes to order. She married fellow Russian Basil Gubar (b. 1907 in Harbin, Manchuria) who had arrived in Australia in 1917. Paula and her husband lived in a house at 10 Gibbon Street, Woolloongabba, which became a social focus for fellow Russians. Their daughter Yvonne was born on 12 Dec 1941.

The collection includes hundreds of photographs and material relating to the Mikonoshin/Meek Family. Gregory Mikonoshin practised as an architect in Brisbane and was the creator of the “Fairy House” in MacGregor Terrace, Bardon.

Many thanks to Nataliya, and to all of the John Oxley Library volunteers, whose work is of great importance.

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Dutton Park was named after Charles Boydell Dutton, the Queensland Minister for Lands from 1883-87.  Dutton Park is now bordered by Highgate Hill, Fairfield and Woolloongabba.  The area was originally heavily timbered with deep gullies.  Closer settlement was brought about by the surveying of a track skirting the swamp at Clarence Corner, passing the Brisbane Gaol and continuing until it joined the bullock track of Ipswich at the Junction Hotel.

 Charles Boydell Dutton, 1883. Image number 110650.

The area was unpopular at the time of early development due to planning for the South Brisbane Cemetery and the Gaol.

Some early settlers, residents and businesses include:

• Fitzsimmons and Cribb families, adjacent to the park.
• 1884 – Samuel Grimes (1884).  His residence was called Coongoon located on Annerley Road, Dutton Park.
• Princess Theatre (1888).
• Cope and Newman, coach builders, Boggo Road (1889).
• James Davey, baker (1900).
• Webster’s Machine Bread and Cake Factory (1901).
• Grandmother Martin’s general store, corner Annerley Road and Tillot Street, Dutton Park (1901).
• Poul Poulson (photographer) built his residence, Beechwood in Gladstone Road, Dutton Park (1910).
• 1933 – C.S. Jones’ Musgrave general store (1933).

     

Some buildings and locations within the Dutton park area include:

• Boggo Road Gaol dating from 1863.  The existing gaol building dates from 1881.  Boggo Road Gaol closed in 1989.
• State Womens’ Prison (1903).
• Dutton Park Swimming Enclosure (1921) was formerly located up against the river bank.
• Boggo Road.  This road was originally named Bloggo Road, with Bloggo said to be an Aboriginal word meaning leaning trees.  The word was subsequently corrupted to Boggo.
• Princess Alexandra Hospital.  There has been a health care facility on this site since 1901 when the Lady Diamantina Orphanage was established.  Later the facility was reopened as the Diamantina Hospital.  Following an upgrade it became known as the South Brisbane Auxiliary Hospital, then the South Brisbane Hospital.  In 1960, the Queen gave approval for the complex to be named after Princess Alexandra, who had visited Australia in 1959.
• Dutton Park/Dutton Park Cemetery.  This site was reserved as public land from an early date but it was only in 1870 that the first burial took place.  Jane Hocking, a West End resident was buried in August, 1880.

Some important dates in Dutton Park’s history and development include:

• 1884 – South Coast Railway was built with a station located at Dutton Park.
• 1886 – Dutton Park State School was established.
• 1908 –The tramline was extended to the area.
• 1919 – St. Ita’s Primary School was opened by the Ursuline sisters.  The school opened in Borva House, dating from the 1870s, previously the residence of Edward Hughes, a local dentist.
• World War Two – Boggo Road Gaol was used to accommodate military prisoners who were awaiting court marshall.

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With the Australian Open dominating headlines it is worth remembering that the State Library of Queensland’s collection of tennis material is particularly rich. This is not surprising considering the number of champions the state has produced including Edgar Moon, Margaret Molesworth, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Neale Fraser, Mal Anderson, Pat Cash, and Pat Rafter.

  

The collection includes ephemera such as rare souvenir programs and tickets, as well as newspaper clippings, books, and photographs. The microfilmed sporting pages of newspapers from around the state are available on level 3 of the State Library. These pages include tennis results from local outback clubs to world championship competitions played out in Brisbane. 

   

Type tennis into our One Search catalogue, limiting the search to images, and you’ll bring up hundreds of photos that bring back to life the glory days of Queensland tennis and the Milton Tennis Centre.

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Having an e-services card allows you to add comments and suggestions to information contained in our catalogue records. You can also apply for a guest log-in if you don’t have one of our cards.

There have been many instances where the online feedback we have received from clients, and the tags they have created, have added value to our records and/or corrected any mistakes in our captions.

One recent example of valuble feedback occured when Mrs Nancy Hodge wrote a comment in connection with an image on our catalogue of “two unidentified girls pictured in the bush during a bushwalking expedition, Rathdowny.”

She wrote the following:

“This is a significant photo - the first two ladies to climb Mt Lindesay in March 1931. The caption could be: Jean Easton(L) and Nora Dimes (R) on top of Mt Lindesay, 15 March 1931. The first women to climb Mt Lindesay. Photo taken by A. A. (Bert) Salmon. The late N M Dimes was my aunt. There are more photos of that 15 March 1931 trip.”

Thanks for your comments Nancy and the clippings you included from the Beaudesert Times and the Brisbane Courier covering the event. It will now be clear to those who view this image just how significant it is.

Simon Farley

Heritage Collections

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The Maps Collection housed in the John Oxley Library Reading Room at the State Library of Queensland contains many cartographic treasures including early Australian maps. An interesting catagory within the collection is military maps from WWII, including examples of ‘escape’ maps printed on silk.

 

Christopher Clayton Hutton developed cloth maps for MI9 during World War II.  Hutton was hired by the War Office to create the escape gear necessary for Britons to escape capture and was responsible for an enormous variety of escape aids including flying boots and uniforms that could be easily converted to look like civilian clothing and powerful torches concealed inside bicycle pumps for use by the French Resistance.

Although the famous Edinburgh map-making firm of John Bartholomew & Sons generously waived all royalties to its maps, for the privilege of helping the war effort, Hutton still needed a medium on to which he could print maps that were quiet to unfold, would not disintegrate when wet, and maintained their integrity when folded yet still be concealed in very small places.   After many attempts to print on silk squares, he was about to give up when he thought of adding pectin, a form of wax, to the ink such that it did not run or wash out when put in water, or even sea water.

After this, the British produced hundreds of thousands of maps on thin cloth and tissue paper. Silk maps soon became ‘the escaper’s most important accessory’ and were issued especially to airmen so that they could sew them into their clothes or wear them around their neck as a scarf. A map like this could be concealed in a small place, a cigarette packet or the hollow heel of a flying boot, did not rustle suspiciously if the captive was searched and in the case of maps on cloth, could survive wear and tear and even immersion in water.  The scheme was soon extended to cover those who had already been captured, although a certain amount of ingenuity was required to get the maps into the POW camps.The maps themselves were mainly small scale, covering large areas; many were copied from Bartholomew’s traditional paper maps. 

Information taken from: Mapping the World: an illustrated history of cartography by Ralph E. Ehrenberg 1937-

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The John Oxley Library’s Simon Farley and Serena Coates attended today’s opening of Thomas Welsby - Recognition at Last at the Royal Historical Society of Queensland’s headquarters, the Commissariat Store, 115 William Street, Brisbane.

 Thomas Welsby. Image No 184660  Items on disply including the Welsby Memorial Cup

A lovely morning tea was provided and an interesting overview of the life of Thomas Welsby was given by Susan Martin, whose thesis on Welsby, titled Recogition at Last, informs the curatorial basis of the display. The exhibition was organised by Janice Hess, Hon Exhibitions Curator, and Robyn Stephensen, Hon Assist Exhibitions Curator. Janice has written a piece on the exhibition in vol. 7, issue 1. of Seascape, Maritime Safety Queensland’s quarterly publication.

Thomas Welsby - Recognition at Last covers many areas of the great man’s life including his early childhood, time as an athlete, businessman, Commodore of the Royal Queensland Yacht Club, involvement with the Queensland Amateur Fisherman’s Association, with Rugby Union Queensland (the Welsby Memorial Cup is on loan from Queensland Rugby Union along with a jersey from the current holders Brothers), presidency of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, and historian of the Moreton Bay area.

Thomas Welsby bequethed his magnificent library to the Historical Society of Queensland and some of his scrapbooks, photos, letters and books are on display. Many thanks to Janice and Robyn for the wonderful personal tour of the library. It was a treat to see Welsby’s meticulous, fine handwriting and the care with which his records are kept.

Thomas Welsby was an incredible all-rounder and achieved a great deal in his life. The John Oxley Library has a number of publications by and about him and records of organisations he was involved in such as those of the Queensland Amateur Fisherman’s Association of Queensland (1904-2004). Welsby was in fact instrumental in the naming of the John Oxley Library.

Congratulations to all at the Royal Historical Society of Queensland involved in the creation and launch of this excellent display. For more information on Thomas Welsby please see Dr Ruth Kerr’s definitive overview of his life in her entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online at http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120492b.htm .

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Queensland can turn up in the most unexpected places…

Recently I read a short story titled The Aleph (1949) by the Argentinian writer, and librarian, Jorge Luis Borges. In this enchanting tale, which takes its name from a mystical object that is reported to be “one of the points of space that contains all its points,” a poet named Daneri is seeking to catalogue in verse the entire planet…”By 1941 he had dispatched some hectares of the state of Queensland, more than a millimeter of the course of the Ob, a gas-meter to the north of Veracruz…”

Queensland must have seemed remote and almost imaginary for Borges as the famous Porteño wrote this story in Spanish, in Buenos Aires, in the 1940s. Likewise the tyranny of distance makes Queensland a place far away from the day to day concerns of Europe, but Queenslandiana resides in collections all throughout the northern hemisphere.

To search through the cultural collections of Europe have a look on  http://www.europeana.eu/portal/ and type Queensland into the search box…you’ll be amazed what you’ll find.

Simon Farley

Heritage Collections

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The John Oxley Library holds a significant amount of material concerning the hospital ship Centaur, the wreck of which was recently located off Moreton Island.  The vessel, despite being clearly marked as a hospital ship, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on the 14 May 1943, sparking national outrage.  Of the 332 persons on board 268 lost their lives, including eleven nurses. 

  

Material held in the John Oxley Library includes a newspaper clippings file, photographs, manuscript collections and various published works.   The following items may be found in the John Oxley Library collection:

Mulligan, Christopher S., Australian hospital ship Centaur: the myth of immunity, Hendra, Qld: Nairana Publications, 1993.  Call No: J 359.3264 MIL

Smith, Alan, Centaur Commemoration Committee: from beginning to end: pictorial history, Bardon, Qld: Centaur Commemoration Committee, 1993.  Call No: P 359.3264 SMI

Goodman, Rupert, Hospital Ships, Brisbane: Boolarong, 1992.  Call No: Q359.3264 GOO

Smith, A.E., Three minutes of time: the torpedoing of the Australian hospital ship ‘Centaur’, Tweed Heads: Lower Tweed River Historical Society, c1991. Call No: P 359.3264 SMI

Walk of remembrance: Centaur Memorial, Point Danger - Coolangatta, Queensland Australia, Tweed Heads: Tweed Heads and Dictrict Historical Society Inc., 2001.  Call No: P994.05 WAL

Centaur (videorecording): death of a hospital ship, Warwick, Qld: Greenapple Media Production, 1993.  Call No: HVC 359.3264 CEN

Please note that this material is held in our repository so if you would like to see any of it let us know beforehand (ph: 38407880) so that we can have it retrieved for you.

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On this last day of our 75th anniversary year, we in the John Oxley Library, and other sections of Heritage Collections, would like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. 

2009 was a landmark year with Q150 celebrations, White Gloves Tours of Oxley collection items around the state, and numerous activities and events in which history took centre stage. Thankyou to all who played a part. We look forward to seeing you in the John Oxley Library Reading Room in 2010.

Felice Anno Nuovo!

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