It’s easy to forget that the Gold Coast used to be a collection of essentially rural settlements and farmland stretching along the south coast from Southport to the New South Wales border.

 Burleigh Heads Hotel, 1900. Image No 147441

Improvements to transport eventually made access easier and more people were able to visit and enjoy the area, in particular its beaches, commencing the process of development.

Burleigh Heads, 1921. Image No APA-104-0001-0005

Currumbin Beach, 1925. Image No 194763

These photographs show well known parts of the Gold Coast before the closer residential and commercial development gained pace, during the 1950s.

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Is this Queensland’s earliest photograph?

 Early view of Queen Street, Brisbane, ca. 1859  Image No: 8298

This photograph of Queen Street Brisbane in 1859 and is taken from the corner of Queen Street and Edward Street, looking south. The large building on the high ground at the right was originally the convict barracks, constructed in 1827-28 and demolished in 1881. The two-storey buildings in the foreground were the North Brisbane Hotel on the left and R. A. Kingsford’s store on the right.

 Sketch of the North Brisbane Hotel, 1853. Image No: 11306

It is recorded that photographers either travelled through or were resident in Brisbane in the years before this image was taken - did they also take photographs of early Brisbane and its residents?

These earlier photographs have either not survived or are yet to be discovered.

Can you help?

Do you know of any photographs of Brisbane or other locations in Queensland that may pre-date this early photograph of Queens Street?

We’d love to hear from you.

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A recent blog post mentioned the pending launch of a book, 100 years of history: the Holland Park mosque 1908-2008.

Simon Farley from the State Library’s Heritage Collections was a guest at the mosque fair’s official lunch function and was presented with a copy of the publication for the John Oxley Library’s collections.

The book by Mustafa A. Ally, co-written by Janeth Deen, includes photographs dating from the 1950s, showing the Islamic community of Holland Park.  As mentioned in our previous blog post, some of these images were located by Janeth in the John Oxley Library’s collection.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd states the following in his letter printed in the forward of this landmark publication, “…as the oldest mosque in Queensland, the centenary of Holland Park Mosque is an important event in the life of Australia’s Muslim Community and an occasion for celebration and spiritual renewal.”

Congratulations on this significant milestone.

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With summer on the horizon Picture Queensland has recently uploaded a series of photographs of beach goers enjoying the sun, sand and surf, with a special emphasis on beach costume.

The photographs highlight the changing fashions of the time; from the modesty of the neck to knee fashions of the early 1900s to the cheeky bikinis of the 1960s. 

Tweed Heads, 1920-1930.  John Oxley Library Image No: 45310

Southport, 1938.  John Oxley Library Image No: 105815

Surfers Paradise, 1958.  John Oxley Library Image No: 67204

Bikini fashion, 1960-1970.  John Oxley Library Image No: 183567

View more images of beach costume from Picture Queensland via One Search.

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The Toowoomba Railway Station art work is an original watercolour on card, 25.5 cm x 34.5 cm, mounted, and painted by an unknown artist ca. 1867.

The view taken from the Royal Hotel (named in 1858) would appear to depict the original railway station which was a crucial link to the Darling Downs.  The rail line between Toowoomba and Ipswich was opened in 1867, but the planned double-story masonry station was cancelled as a consequence of the 1866 financial crisis.

As well as complementing other early images in the art and photographic collections, the painting fills a significant gap in our depictions of Toowoomba’s historic buildings.  No photograph of the original (pre 1874) railway station appears to be held in the John Oxley Library’s collection.

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Did you know?

Outbreaks of bubonic plague, spread by rats and introduced by ships from overseas, were common in Queensland at the turn of the century.

The first known case of plague in Australia was reported in Sydney in January 1900.  The first case in Queensland occurred in Rockhampton in April 1900 and not long after cases arose in Townsville and Brisbane.

The first victim in Brisbane was a carter who worked at the wharves and who lived in Woollongabba.  He was admitted to the hastily built Colmslie Plague Hospital.   The patient’s house was cleansed and fumigated, bed linen and curtains burned, and an iron stockade was erected around the property and two neighbouring houses.

Barricade around houses in Woolloongabba.  Image no. 47426

Bubonic plague in Woolloongabba, 1900.  Image no. 47425

For the next nine years epidemics occurred each year and were confined to ports.  The only inland centre which had the plague was Ipswich.  Measures taken to combat the disease included the surveillance of vessels arriving in the state, the destruction of rats, the establishment of isolation hospitals and special provisions for the disposal of the dead.  Plague victims who succumbed to the disease were wrapped in sheets soaked in carbolic acid and their coffins were slaked with lime.

Plague protection, 1905.  Image no. 53460

Destroyed rats, 1900-1902.  Image no. 108588

After 1909 there were twelve plague-free years.  This led to a slackening in the regulations and a man died of plague suddenly in Brisbane in 1921.  This outbreak caused sixty-three deaths.  The last case of plague was reported in Queensland in 1922.

Sources in the John Oxley Library about the plague include:

Patrick, Ross, A history of health & medicine in Queensland 1824-1960, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1987   (Q614.09943 PAT)

Ham, B. Burnett, Report on plague in Queensland 1900-1907,  Brisbane: Government Printer, 1907   (RBQ 614.5732 HAM)

Thearle, M. John, Plague revisited: the black death: an account of plague in Australia, 1900-1923,  Sydney: Royal Australian College of Physicians, 1994  (P616.9232 THE)

Annual Reports of the Department of Health were published in the Queensland Parliamentary Papers  which are available on microfilm (level 3 of the library)

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Did you know?

On the 1st December 1864 a huge fire destroyed all of the buildings in the block bordering Albert, Queen, George and Elizabeth Streets, Brisbane.  Fifty houses and a number of businesses, including two banks, three hotels and four drapery establishments, were completely destroyed in the space of two and a half hours.  All attempts at fighting the fire were impeded by the fact that Brisbane had virtually no water supply at this time.  In addition most of the buildings were constructed of timber, causing the fire to spread too rapidly to be contained.

Considering the extent of the fire, casualties were very few and there was no loss of life.  Only four people were taken to hospital, mostly suffering from bruises.

Following the conflagration the area was redeveloped, with more substantial buildings constructed of brick and stone, rather than timber.

A detailed description of the fire appeared in the Brisbane Courier, 2/12/1864.  A brief extract follows.

“Last evening will be long remembered in the annals of Queensland as the date on which occurred one of the most disastrous and crushing conflagrations that ever brought ruin and desolation on a town.  Indeed, it would be almost impossible to convey with the pen anything like an adequate idea of the exciting and appalling scene, which certainly beggared description.  At all events, the whole of the business premises and private residences which occupied what may fairly be considered the most valuable site in Brisbane, were, in a couple of hours, reduced to a heap of ruins, in spite of all that could be done by hundreds of willing and courageous men to stay the fearful progress of the devastating element.”

Great Fire of Brisbane, 1864.  Image no. 125754

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Did you know?

One of the worst train disasters in Queensland’s history occurred near Camp Mountain on Monday 5 May 1947.

The train involved in this accident was a picnic train organised by the Customs and Excise department’s social club which left Brisbane with nearly 500 women and children at 8.55 am.

The trip turned to disaster at 9.55 am when the leading carriage jumped the rail in a cutting a few miles on the Brisbane side of Closeburn, where the picnic was to have been held. This unfortunate accident claimed fifteen lives and injured thirty and was Queensland’s worst rail disaster to that point.

Camp Mountain railway accident, 1947. Image No: 102670

Derailed carriages, Camp Mountain.  Image No: 102648

Rescuing the injured.  Image No: 102649

The John Oxley Library has recently digitised images of this accident and these can be viewed in Picture Queensland via One Search.

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There is recent renewed interest in locating the final resting place of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur which was attacked and sunk by the Japanese in May 1943, in waters to the east of Brisbane.

The enduring mystery of the Centaur’s location will hopefully be solved by a proposed search, similar to the recent successful search for the Sydney.

The John Oxley Library holds a range of material and information relating to the Centaur, including printed material, photographs and ephemeral material such as pamphlets and other commemorative material.

Centaur.  Image no. 17137

A memorial service for the Centaur - from the ephemera collection

Find more photographs of the Centaur in Picture Queensland via One Search.

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There have been a number of Victoria Bridges on the site of the present bridge and the John Oxley Library holds an extensive collection of photographs of these bridges.  An interesting image which recently came to light is of the first permanent Victoria Bridge, opened in 1874 but washed away in the 1893 floods which devastated Brisbane.

Panorama of the first permanent Victoria Bridge, 1874. Image no. 7143-0001-0001

This image of the then newly completed bridge was taken from the south eastern side of the river ca. 1874.  A little known feature, revealed in this image, is the existence of a revolving mechanism by which the bridge could be opened to allow vessels to pass.

Section of the panorama. Image no. 7143-0001-0002

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