This week the State Library was pleased to welcome lawyer and curatorial art consultant Mr Tom Mosby. Tom’s face was of course instantly recognisable to many of us after his popular appearances on Channel 10’s MasterChef Australia

Tom will be involved in a number of projects and exhibitions at the State Library including those relating to the Margaret Lawrie Collection of Torres Strait Islander materials housed in the John Oxley Library on level 4.

Tom is a Torres Strait Islander descendent of Iama/Tudu, Masig, Meriem, Dauar and Erub Islanders. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Art Conservation from the University of Canberra and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne.

He is published in both national and international art journals and art catalogues with a focus on Art of the Torres Strait islands, Conservation, and Moral and Legal Rights.

In 1998 he was the curator of the landmark exhibition Ilan Pasin - Art of the Torres Strait Islands at the Cairns Regional Art Gallery.

Tom also advises the Queensland Art Gallery on Torres Strait Islander cultural protocols and sits on the Advisory Board of the Indigenous Arts Marketing and Export Agency.

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The name of this suburb may derive from a number of sources. The word is said to be a Scottish term meaning a new place or a new house. It is also recorded that the name is based on Newstead Abbey located in Nottinghamshire in England.

The southern section of Newstead comprises the locality of Teneriffe. Another locality within Newstead is Booroodabin, with the named said to be based on an Aboriginal word meaning a place of oaks.

View of Newstead, ca. 1890. Image No: 67710

Some early settlers and businesses in the Newstead area include:

• James Gibbon, a property speculator, apparently known as “Street Corner Jimmy”, purchased a large tract of land on Teneriffe Hill (1850). He named his property Teneriffe after one of the Canary Islands and the mountain located on this island.
• Captain John Wickham, the first police magistrate and government resident for the Moreton Bay District. Wickham was the commander of the Beagle upon which Charles Darwin had sailed.
• George Harris, shipping, stock and station agent and storekeepers. The Harris family later resided in Newstead House.
• wool was a major export through the network of wharves that were developed in the Newstead area. The first wool store to be established was Dalgety’s, which opened in 1911 and was destroyed by fire in 1984.
• by the 1880s most of the early landholders were starting to sub-divide their properties.
• river based industries were developed from an early period, including boat building, boat maintenance and wharfage. The on-going dredging of the Brisbane river maintained navigability for larger vessels.
• boat building sheds.
• ice works and cold stores.
• petrol/gas storage.
• William Perry was a prominent member of the Queensland Legislative Council. The Perry family residence was called Folkstone which is commemorated in the name of Folkstone Street.

Folkstone, 1885. Image No: 41586

The housing estates which developed in the early period of the suburb’s history included:

• Green Meadows Estate (1870s) comprising 16 perch allotments located near the Brisbane River.
• Newstead Estate (1870s) comprising the area surrounding Newstead House.
• Teneriffe Estate (1870s).
• Breakfast Creek Estate (1884).
• 1912 – Perry Estate (1912) comprising housing allotments sub-divided from the Perry Family’s estate.

Some significant buildings and locations in the Newstead area include:

• Newstead House which dates from 1846. Newstead House is acknowledged as
  Brisbane’s oldest surviving residence. The house was built by Patrick Leslie who had settled on the Darling Downs in 1840 and who named the original cottage Newstead after Newstead Abbey in England. The house has evolved from the original cottage into the grand residence we see today. The Leslie family only lived in the house for a year before it was sold to Captain John Wickham, the first police magistrate and government resident for the Moreton Bay District. He was also Patrick Leslie’s brother-in-law. In 1939, the Queensland Government enacted the Newstead House Trust which was the first legislation in Queensland to preserve an historic structure.
• Booroodabin Bowls Club, Queensland’s oldest bowls club. It was originally called the Breakfast Creek Bowls Club.

Booroodabin Bowling Club, 1899. Image No: 12027

• Roseville, dating from the 1880 and located in Chester Street. The house was constructed for James Colishaw. A later owner, James Mortimer gave the house the name Roseville.
• Albion Park, previously known as the Breakfast Creek Sports Ground. The park comprised a cycle track, cricket oval, football fields and a lake for swimming and boating.
• Perry Park, developed in 1913 on land acquired from the estate of William Perry.
• Cameron Rocks. The Cameron family lived in Toorak Road. Mr Cameron was a prominent financier, naturalist, yachtsman and fisherman.
• wool and general stores.
• William Houghton & Co.
• Wilcox Mofflin Ltd.
• Fenwick & Co.
• Queensland Primary Producers Cooperative.
• New Zealand and Mercantile Agency Limited.
• Winchcombe Carson Limited.
• Dalgety’s Wool and Grain Stores (1906).

Winchcombe Carson Woolstores, 1913. Image No: 53112

Some important dates in Newstead’s history and development include:

• 1836 – the first bridge across Breakfast Creek was constructed.
• 1848 – the first road bridge was built across Breakfast Creek. This structure collapsed 1856 and was replaced by a punt for 2 years, whilst a replacement bridge was constructed.
• 1857 – Holy Trinity Anglican Church established.
• 1867 – the Fortitude Valley State School established.
• 1885 – the first trams run to Breakfast Creek.
• 1885 – the Breakfast Creek Rowing Club was established.
• 1888 – a replacement road bridge was built across Breakfast Creek.
• 1890 – the Breakfast Creek State School was opened.
• 1913 – Edward Eager launched his American Motor Business at Newstead.
• 1914 – Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church was established. This church was built on a site acquired from the estate of William Perry and became the church for the newly established Bowen Hills Parish.
• 1956 – the present Breakfast Creek Bridge was constructed. This bridge has been subsequently widened and renovated.

Find more photographs of Newstead in the State Library’s collection.

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The Picture Queensland collection, formerly available through the Queensland Digital Library, is now available through One Search, the main entry point for searching State Library’s resources.

One Search now provides access to State Library’s South Bank collections and almost 50,000 images from the pictorial collections of the John Oxley Library. Other digital collections, including images from Picture Queensland contributors and Queensland Stories will be added to One Search over the next few months.  

Discovery through One Search comes with a significantly faster search experience with no limits on the number of search results returned. One Search also offers clients a number of social networking tools, including tagging and commenting as well as the ability to store favourite records. Try it!

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Our White Gloves Tour of Far North Queensland continued with a visit to Mareeba Library on 17 June. An enthusiastic group of history lovers viewed the John Oxley Library treasures on display and stayed on to discuss the items.

   Mareeba Library

Some of those present had memories of particular places being shown, in particular those photographs of familiar locations taken so long ago.

These memories and personal insights made the occasion all the more memorable and enjoyable for all present.

The tour continues today with presentations at Herberton and Atherton.

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The John Oxley Library 75th anniversary White Gloves Tour continues with one of our most successful and well attended events to date.

This latest presentation of treasures from the John Oxley Library’s collections was held on 16 June at the Mossman Library. Attended by more than forty people there was lively discussion of the items on display with great interest shown by all.

Participants enjoying the treasures at the the Mossman Library

John Oxley Library librarian Brian Randall introduces the treasures

The Mossman Library also stayed open past its usual closing time to allow participants to continue viewing and discussing the material.

Thanks to Bill, Imelda, Lesley and Judy of the Mossman Library for all your help and assistance with our tour and presentation.

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The White Gloves Tours of Queensland regional centres continues with the latest tour to Cairns and region. The first two presentations were held at the Cairns City Library with participants viewing a range of treasures from the John Oxley Library’s collections.

The beautifully restored former Cairns Council building, dating from the 1880s and now the home of the library, was a charming and highly suitable venue for the viewing of these historic materials.

   Cairns City Library building, Abbott Street

The reception was very positive with discussion of the items extending on and enjoyed by all. Local resident, Mr Dave Bowles said “It is marvelous to see these wonderful objects here in Cairns…thank you for bringing them.”

   Brian Randall of the John Oxley Library (right) with participants at the Cairns presentation

The tour continues this week to Mossman and the Atherton Tablelands.

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On Friday 5 June Premier and Minister for the Arts Anna Bligh announced three leading historians and the University of Queensland as the winners of the prestigious State Library of Queensland (SLQ) Awards.

New John Oxley Library Fellows Susan Addison (left) and Dr Judith McKay (right) with Executive Manager of Heritage Collections Louise Denoon.

The John Oxley Library Fellows receive their award from Her Excellency, Ms Penelope Wensley, Governor of Queensland at the State Library of Queensland Awards Night.

Dr Raymond Evans accepts the John Oxley Library Award.

Premier Bligh said historians Dr Judith McKay and Susan Addison received the $20,000 John Oxley Fellowship to help further their research into Queensland’s culinary heritage, while Dr Raymond Evans received the $5000 John Oxley Library Award for his outstanding work documenting the state’s past.

The University of Queensland was awarded the $5000 Library Board of Queensland Award for the development of Cyberschool, a website that connects thousands of school students across the state to the university’s library services and resources.

“The SLQ Awards acknowledge and support the individuals and organisations that make vital contributions toward recording and documenting Queensland history, and increasing community awareness of and appreciation for our history and library services,” she said.

“In recognition of Q150 and the 75th anniversary of John Oxley Library, the SLQ Awards in 2009 celebrated and reflected upon the exciting events of our past and how these events have shaped our present and future.”

Ms Bligh said long-term collaborators Dr McKay, a historian and museum consultant, and Ms Addison, an editor and writer, wrote the 1985 book A Good Plain Cook: An Edible History of Queensland which covered the period from early European settlement to 1945. “The Fellowship will allow them to extend their research using the resources of John Oxley Library to explore Queensland’s rich and diverse culinary heritage right through to the current day - in total capturing over 150 years of our culinary history,” she said.

“The John Oxley Library Award recognised Dr Evans’ impressive career as an academic and author, writing about Queensland and Australian history since 1965. His recent work A History of Queensland (2007) was short-listed for the 2008 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fiction.

“The University of Queensland’s Cyberschool program is actually making history, bridging the gap between high school and university, and providing students, particularly those disadvantaged by distance, with the opportunity to experience the university’s extensive library resources and services.”

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Government House Open Day was held on Saturday 6th June as part of Brisbane’s Queensland Day celebrations.

This provided a wonderful opportunity for select collection items from the John Oxley Library to be displayed in the ornate setting of the Investiture Room where members of the public could end their tour of ”Fernberg” by viewing the State Library’s treasures first hand.

Items on display included the Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party (1892), a logbook kept by Lieut. John T. Gowlland, commander of the ship Governor Blackall, during a search for shipwrecked passengers from the schooner Maria (1872), and an intimate journal kept by a young sailor, Charles James Card, during his service on board the HMS Rattlesnake (between 1847 and 1850).

These materials are also touring Queensland’s regional towns as part of the State Library’s White Gloves Tours throughout 2009. 

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On Wednesday 3rd June 2009 the State Library of Queensland played host to speakers from a range of archival institutions across Brisbane including Saadia Thomson-Dwyer from Queensland State Archives, Mairi Popplewell from the National Archives of Australia, and Annabel Lloyd from Brisbane City Council Archives.

Simon Farley outlines the John Oxley Library’s 75th anniversary program.

The seminar drew a sell-out crowd to auditorium 2 at the State Library with members of the public learning about the history and emergence of Brisbane’s archival repositories and the collections and services currently available at each.

Simon Farley from the John Oxley Library drew attention to the interconnected nature of these key memory institutions and spoke about the State Library of Queensland’s Heritage Collections, including the original archival and manuscript items of interest to researchers of Queensland history.

Many thanks to all who attended and made this such a successful and interesting event in the middle of Queensland’s 150th birthday year.

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Chermside is a well known location to Brisbane’s northsiders, especially due to the popularity of the large Westfield Chermside Shopping Centre.

The suburb of Chermside was named in honour of Sir Herbert Chermside a former Governor of Queensland (1901-04).  The area was previously known as Downfall Creek however the name was changed to Chermside in 1903, due to the efforts of James Youatt, a local teacher.

The early settlers and residents in the area included:

• Andrew Hamilton and family (1866) who purchased land in an area that was then known as Deadman’s Gully.
• William Bell who purchased a property adjoining Andrew Hamilton’s.
• Aaron Adsett.
• German immigrants settled in the period after 1860 in the area adjacent to the present intersection of Hamilton and Webster Roads.  These included the Hermann Family, Frederick Lenz and Christian Bachmann.

Industries and businesses established in the Chermside area included:

• Blacksmiths and coach builders.  Andrew Hamilton’s Five Mile Town Shoeing Forge and General Smith.

  Andrew Hamilton’s blacksmith shop on Gympie Rd, ca.1890. Image No: 6105

• Charles Murr’s Blacksmith’s Forge.
• August Vellnagel who worked for Murr in the 1890s offered to purchase the forge but was unsuccessful.  He eventually opened his own forge on a site in Gympie Road near the entrance to Marchant Park.  
• Slaughter Yards.  Dow and Slack; Alonza Sparkes; Bert Robinson.
• General Stores.  John Patterson (1870s) in Gympie Road; Gottlieb Conradi’s Potsloe Store (1880, named after an adjoining land subdivision); William Sammell; Joe Fisher’s Noah’s Ark Store; J. & K. Lemke, Butchers.

Gottlieb Conradi’s general store on Gympie Rd. Image No: 6096

• The Chermside Theatre was opened in 1928 with the first feature being The man who laughs.  The theatre later changed its name to the Dawn Theatre, which has subsequently closed.

Transport:

• Horse Buses.  The first horse bus service commenced October, 1886 with the awarding of a mail contract to David Goodrem of the Edinburgh Castle Hotel.
• The tram service was extended to Chermside in March 1947.

 First tram to Chermside, 1947.  Image No: 119364

Some local sites of interest include:

• Marchant Park.  William Edward Murphy purchased approximately 204 hectares in 1868 for £372.  Soon after, George Marchant bought a portion of this land for use as a spelling paddock for his horses.  Later, in 1918, the Kedron Shire Council, under public pressure to develop more parkland in its area approached George Marchant and he eventually donated land as a park.
• Kidston Park.  Named in honour of William Kidston, former Premier of Queensland.
• Annand Park.  Named in honour of Colonel Frederick William Gadsby Annand, an early Town Clerk.
• Bradbury Park.  Named in honour of Alderman F.W. Bradbury, an early Brisbane City Council Alderman.
• Chermside Garden Settlement.  Opened in 1936.

There are a number of churches in the Chermside area, with the dates of opening as follows:

• United Free Methodist Church, on the Adsett Property (1873).
• Church of England, in the School of Arts Building (1910).
• Assemblies of God (1922).
• Congregational Church (1932).
• Presbyterian Church (1961).
• Catholic Church (1962).
• Lutheran Church (1963).

Some other relevant dates in the history and development of the Chermside area include:

• 1859 – only a few residents in the area.  Early survey maps show that the Chermside section of the track which would later become Gympie Road, existed.
• 1864 – The Queensland government requested Edgar Huxtable, a surveyor, to draw subdivision plans for the Chermside/Aspley area.
• 1865 – First land sales took place.
• 1867 – Gympie Gold Rush has a positive impact on the area, particularly the areas along the road to Gympie.
• 1900 – Chermside State School opened on 7 July 1900.
• 1947 – Tram service extended to Chermside.
• 1957 – The Allan & Stark Drive-in shopping centre is opened – the first such shopping centre in Queensland.

Interior of Allan & Stark Ltd., ca. 1957.  Image No: 119383

• 1959 – The Chermside Hospital is opened as a chest clinic.  It was later re-named the Prince Charles Hospital.
• 1975 – The area encompassing North Chermside is gazetted as being within the suburb of Geebung.

Find more photographs of Chermside in the State Library’s collection.

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