Your Brisbane: Past and Present

While today's post will have the usual discussion points around people and buildings, an outdated item of ladies underwear will also feature prominently. What underwear exactly?

Of course - it's corsets.

Put your hand up if you have never seen a corset. Leave it up if you don't know what a corset is. Just as I thought - not too many of us have a clue! I do remember advertisements for corsets in Women's Weekly and in newspapers; also my mother had undergarments that she referred to as "step-ins" that were corsets. In the 1950s she wouldn't go into town without wearing a hat, gloves and, under a smart dress, a corset that also held up her stockings!

This isn't the forum (and indeed I don't have the space) to discuss corsets at length. Suffice it to say that a corset is an undergarment for females designed to enhance a woman's figure. Some corsets were medical devices that provided support for the spine, but the majority were worn for aesthetic reasons. If you want more information than that, here is a link to a Wikipedia article and below is an advertisement that shows you what they looked like.

(Photo: nlapic-vn6255300)

And why is it that I am talking about corsets at all? Well, there are a couple of buildings that we are looking at today that are closely involved with the manufacture of corsets. And there is one rather extraordinary woman involved, too.

Firstly this building - a house on Ipswich Rd at Annerley. Unfortunately it no longer exists, but in its day it was quite spectacular. The photograph dates from 1910.

(Photo: JOL 601977)

The house was named Huntingtower, and between 1920 and 1958 it was the home of Mrs Sarah Ann Jenyns, who was a Brisbane corset manufacturer. The man at the front door is William Hood, a former owner who is not connected to today's story.

Sarah Jenyns (née Thompson) was born in New South Wales in 1865, married Ebenezer Randolphus Jenyns in 1887 and moved to Brisbane in 1896. They had eight children, and things were tough for this large family initially. Ebenezer made cutlery and surgical instruments, but preferred to expend most of his energy preaching the gospel as a part-time evangelist. At the start Sarah assisted in her husband's business but in 1911 she commenced her own business making surgical instruments, corsets and belts. In fact Sarah patented a series of corsets designed for various body shapes and she travelled overseas marketing them.

(Photo:http://thefashionarchives.org)

And this is the second building - it was designed by architects Chambers & Powell, built for Sarah Jenyns in 1916, and still exists on George St in the CBD, right next to the BAFS Building. If you look closely you might see the initials JPC in a logo on the pediment - they stand for Jenyns Patent Corsets, Mrs Sarah Jenyns's corset manufacturing business. This addition to her business was finalised after her recovery from a stroke.

(Photo: © 2015 the foto fanatic)

Although her business was moving along smoothly, the same cannot be said about Sarah's family life. Ructions developed through the 1920s as Ebenezer handed his business to son John and Sarah was joined in her business by another son, Herbert. It appears that Ebenezer was more interested in preaching on street corners than running a large business, but Sarah was able to grow her own business into a leading company that survived for almost a hundred years. Some of the children were aligned with their father and others with their mother.

During WWII Jenyns had large contracts with the army and navy, and in 1946 Herbert became managing director. Unfortunately, not long after, Sarah's health was affected by dementia and she was placed under a protection order. The divided family was to cause further problems - disaffected family members prompted the Public Curator to initiate proceedings against Herbert, alleging undue influence over his mother during a business transaction. The case was won by Herbert on appeal, and it became a precedent in the areas of undue influence and unconscionable conduct. Herbert continued to run the business and branched into foundation garments and underclothing. The Jenyns factory at Ipswich employed over 1100 machinists at its peak. In the 1960s Herbert, by then a millionaire, sold the business to the well-known Triumph brand.

(Photo: Whiteheads via qt.com.au)

Sarah died at Huntingtower in February 1952. But that's not the end of her story.

In July 2014 Sarah, pictured below, was elected to the Queensland Business Hall of Fame. This is what was said about her at her induction:

The early hardships she had experienced forged an independent spirit with a can-do attitude making her one of the few significant business women of the early 20th century. She created a business involving four generations that lasted nearly 100 years and a product that continues to be produced in Brisbane today in line with her original patent. Sarah Jenyns will always be remembered as a courageous, astute and creative business leader.

(Photo: northernstar.com.au)

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tff

The digital revolution is well and truly upon us.

Television used to be the principal way entertainment was consumed in the home - these days you can stream anything from books to music to films and television shows at any time, right to your personal device for you to use at your leisure.

It's a long, long way from the way television appeared when it first arrived. It was only broadcast for a few hours daily, and it was very low resolution black and white images with viewing options being only a couple of stations.

Children in those days had to entertain themselves in different ways to the ways available today. These days if you ask kids if they'd like to play a game they head for their PlayStations whereas games in the past might have been draughts (checkers), Scrabble or Monopoly.

Another form of entertainment was comics. Here I'm not talking about cartoons on film or television, but magazines that usually set out a visual story-line using hand-drawn scenes.

Just as there currently seems to be a deal of criticism of computer games in terms of distracting or even corrupting today's children, there used to be similar criticism about comics. Many adults had the opinion that extensive reading of comics would result in their child becoming a delinquent. In my childhood neighbourhood many of us had comic collections and we would get together to swap titles in order to increase access. It was a hot trading environmenttoo - popular titles could command a higher swap rate, as could the latest editions or special issues. Similarly, torn covers and missing pages would be marked down, so there was a lot for the young trader to be wary of. Here are some of the favoured titles of the day.

Many of the comic titles that were available in Australia in those days were imported from overseas, and the main importer was the Melbourne firm of Gordon & Gotch. John Gotch arrived in Australia in December 1853 chasing gold. That was unsuccessful and Gotch found himself selling newspapers for Alexander Gordon, an association which grew into a partnership. When Gordon retired in 1859 and returned to his native Scotland, Gotch bought his share and continued the business which by then was the main importer of newspapers and magazines from Britain.

Branches in Sydney and London followed, and in 1875 Gordon & Gotch opened a Brisbane branch. The business continued to flourish, being incorporated in 1895 and listed in 1897. The six-storey building below was erected in Adelaide St in 1926-7, and the size of the structure is an indication of how successful the company had become.

(Photo: BCC)

(Photo: © 2015 the foto fanatic)

The building is still standing in Adelaide St, populated with commercial tenants. Gordon & Gotch left the building in 1957 but they are a continuing player in the world of printed media, distributing more than 130 million items each year. They are now part of the PMP Group.

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tff

Over the weekend the beautiful mrs tff and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary and to mark that milestone we went to one of our favourite CBD restaurants, e'cco bistro. And co-incidentally that restaurant is housed in the building we are discussing today.

Firstly, a few words about the restaurant - not a review as such, but more of a recognition of its local importance. Chef Philip Johnson opened the restaurant in 1995, a time when Brisbane was hardly overrun with excellent eateries. In 1997 Johnson won the prestigious Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year and since then Philip Johnson and the restaurant have won a shedload of awards and Johnson has also knocked out six best-selling cookbooks. Philip Johnson is really a pioneer of the modern Brisbane food scene and has set a very highstandard for local restaurateurs to emulate. Here's one person's viewof Brisbane's current culinary capability.

The building that houses the restaurant dates back to 1919 and it was constructed as an office and warehouse for the tea merchants, James Inglis & Co. Situated right at the end of Adelaide St at the Boundary St corner, the site was close to the river and the Petrie Bight wharves, a definite advantage for the transferring of tea chests onto and off ships. This photo shows the Boundary St frontage of the building.

(Photo: google.com)

The name Inglis may not mean much to people these days, but most would have heard of their branded teas - Billy Tea and Goldenia Tea.

(Photos: National Library of Australia)

And this is the man behind the tea - James Inglis, a Scot who arrived in Australia around 1877 via New Zealand and India.

(Photo: nla.pic-an24219595-v)

Inglis's ties to India gave him the opportunity to promote Indian tea at the Sydney International Exhibition in 1880 and he went on to become the agent for the Indian Tea Association of Calcutta, before partnering with WP Brown to form Inglis, Brown & Co in 1883. That partnership was dissolved in 1887 and James Inglis & Co came into being. By 1893 the company was handling over 1,000,000 lbs (about 453,400 kg) of packaged tea per annum. Inglis was obviously a marketing devotee - he purchased the rights to "Waltzing Matilda" in order to wrap the words around each packet of Billy Tea. In fact the version of the song that is heard today stems from the rewrite commissioned by Billy Tea in 1903.

But it was not only tea for which Inglis is remembered. An accomplished and industrious man, he was a politician, a director of several companies, a writer and supporter of the arts. He died in 1908.

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tff

Brisbane seemed to have an abundance of department stores when I was growing up. We have previously looked at TC Beirne's and McWhirters in the Valley, and today's story is similar in many respects. Francis (Frank) McDonnell arrived in Australia in 1886 after having served an apprenticeship as a draper in his native Ireland.

McDonnell worked in the drapery businesses of Finney Isles and also Edwards & Lamb before establishing McDonnell & East in 1901 at a George St premises with another Irish immigrant, Hubert East. Initially they were assisted financially by the Godfather of George St, fellow Irishman Peter Murphy, the owner of the nearby Transcontinental Hotel and a well-known politician and businessman.

By 1911 this firm of importers, cash drapers, tailors, outfitters, dressmakers and milliners was doing well enough to erect its own premises and land in George St was purchased for this purpose. A three-storey building was designed for the company by TR Hall. The new building was called the White Store to differentiate it from the original leased premises and here is a photograph of it from around 1950.

(Photo: SLQ 111988)

The firm of McDonnell & East continued to prosper through the early twentieth century and George St became a popular shopping precinct, no doubt aided by the advent of the trams to the area as well as the nearby railway station. The firm became a public company in 1920. By this time the sons of the founders were working in the business and were able to continue to manage the firm after Frank McDonnell and Hubert East died within six months of each other in 1928.

(Photo: DBHKer)

When Brisbane lost its tram network in 1969, McDonnell & East suffered a loss of custom and to counter this the company erected a large car park to counter the parking on offer at the burgeoning drive-in shopping centres. It became the largest car park in the CBD.

In 1984 an investment company became the majority shareholder in McDonnell & East and set out on an expansion and acquisition strategy that was ultimately a failure. Large sums of money were spent trying to re-position the brand but this over-capitalisation and recessionary times led to insolvency. McDonnell & East closed the doors of its Brisbane building in 1994.

(Photo: © 2015 the foto fanatic)

The building was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1997 and won an Australian Property Institute excellence in property award for heritage property in 2007. It still stands in George St (above) with some retail tenants on the ground floor but there are "For Lease" signs showing above.

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tff

Brisbane architect JR Hall designed this hotel, and it was erected in 1881-2 in the then increasingly popular George St. Its position on the corner of Ann St was close to the magnificent Supreme Court building of the day, and no doubt the court system contributed plenty of customers.

(Photo: SLQ 43455)

The hotel still stands and is still operating as a hotel, although I doubt that JR Hall could have envisaged the changes that have taken place. The roof line has been changed and, as with many of our older hotels, the lovely wrought iron balconies have been removed. I wonder who could possibly think that large air-conditioning units would look better than a balcony with wrought iron features.

(Photo: google.com)

And the exterior changes aren't the only ones that may have flummoxed JR Hall if he suddenly re-appeared in Brisbane. "Cold Beer Hot Girls" says the main sign above the awning. Yes, the Grosvenor promotes itself as having Brisbane's only topless bar. Other signs saying "Showbar" and "Gentlemen's Club" are also prominent, leaving us all in no doubt as to the type of establishment it is. Far be it for me to pass judgement on this place, but I am surprised that a T&A venue could operate so prominently in today's ultra politically correct environment.

(Photo: © 2015 the foto fanatic)

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tff

Have you ever thought about setting up a bank or an insurance company? When I first worked in the insurance industry I used to fantasise about starting a new insurance office, but that was merely the day-dreams of youth, largely based around the idea of making my then very tedious job redundant.

Yet in the earliest days of the Australian colonies that is what happened. Groups of men got together, pooled resources and kicked off these necessary commercial institutions. One such establishment was the Royal Bank of Queensland, set up under Royal Charter (how hard would it have been to obtain that from the farthest outpost of the Empire?) in Brisbane in 1886. The aim of these enterprises was to retain capital locally in the colony to provide further growth, rather than having profits repatriated to England.

The Richard Gailey designed building that we are looking at today is in George St and was originally erected in 1885 as two shops, but leased to the Royal Bank of Queensland in 1888. Here is a current photograph of the building, the last structure in Brisbane with associations to the Royal Bank of Queensland, although some of their other buildings elsewhere in Queensland remain and are heritage listed. This building is listed on the BCC heritage register.

(Photo: © 2015 the foto fanatic)

In the days prior to Federation banks issued their own currency. In fact they did so right up to 1910 when the Australian government legislated to prevent private banks from issuing notes. Here is a copy of one of the bank's own £20 notes from 1886.

(Photo: https://www.therightnote.com.au)

In the years leading up to the 1890s Brisbane, and George St in particular, were in an expansionary phase, but the inevitable bust cycle arrived in tandem with the 1893 flood, a double-whammy that took Queensland many years to recover from. There had been heady days in commerce, but the boom and bust cycles that repeated themselves in those times made life very difficult for a fledgling bank.

The Royal Bank of Queensland built this head office in Queen St in 1891. It was replaced in 1930 by a new National Bank building that still stands in the Queen St mall.

(Photo: SLQ 66715)

Yet in 1893, only a couple of short years later, there was a petition to wind up the bankafter it was forced to suspend business in a knock-on effect following financial problems at other banks. The Royal Bank of Queensland managed to survive that period and it existed for another two decades.

The Royal Bank of Queensland merged with the Bank of North Queensland in 1917, forming the Bank of Queensland. A mere five years later the Bank of Queensland was folded into the National Bank of Australasia.

The Bank of Queensland that exists today emerged in 1970 from beginnings as a building society and subsequent mergers with other institutions. It has no association with the Royal Bank of Queensland discussed here.

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tff

Dear readers:This is the last post for this year, but the blog will return early next year. I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas season and a healthy 2016. tff

It seems that we have just about killed off manufacturing industries in Australia. The remaining local auto manufacturers - Holden, Ford and Toyota - will all be gone by the end of 2017. Jobs in the manufacturing sector will be as scarce as hens' teeth then, given that only 10% of current Aussie jobs are employed in manufacturing, down from 25% in the 1960s.

The reasons are varied, and the significance of each individual factor will depend on your political viewpoint as much as anything else. Space here is too limited to discuss this subject at any length, but I did want to mention it with respect to today's topic which is shoes.

Pictured here is a purpose-built shoe and boot manufacturing factory in the suburb of Newstead. It started life in 1889 as the Goldsworthy & Perkins Boot Factory and was subsequently known as the Federal Boot Factory and the Australian Boot Factory. The building maintained its connection to the leather manufacturing industry until it was sold in 1981. It still stands and it is included in the Brisbane City Council heritage list, although apparently vacant at the moment.

(Photo: © 2016 the foto fanatic)

And this photo shows the working conditions in a similar Brisbane factory, Astill & Freeman at South Brisbane, in the year 1900.

(Photo: SLQ 108318)

In 1900 there were about 1400 people employed by boot and shoe manufacturers in Brisbane. As well as Goldsworthy & Perkins, other notable firms were Hunter's, Dixon's and Lawrence's - they all had large premises and employed hundreds of staff.

Goldsworthy & Perkins were well-regarded by the local population. Here is an extract from The Queenslander, 28 July 1900:

"... Messrs. Goldsworthy and Perkins, the well-known manufacturers at Newstead, Fortitude Valley, enjoy a high reputation, and deservedly so, their special lines of goods being fit for any showcase in the Australian colonies. The machinery used by this firm comprise all the latest novelties of American Ingenuity, which turn out boots either machine-sewn or "fair stitched," the latter process showing a prettily-finished "stitch welt," equal in appearance to the best hand-made article, the difference in which no person short of an expert would be in a position to detect."

The introduction of mechanisation was a boon for the factory owners butproblematicfor staff.In those days it was common for female workers to do the finishing jobs that were largely done by hand while the machinery was usually operated by men.The boot making industry employed large numbers of female workers and they were significantly disadvantaged by increasing mechanisation. Added to this mix, the government introduced a tariff on imported footware, thereby creating a larger market for locally made shoes and boots. The increased demand had to be met somehow, and factory owners started to move towards payment by piece - they thought that full-time employment and payment of an hourly or weekly wage did not provide sufficient incentive for workers to increase production. On the other hand, employees wanted security of employment in a factory rather than irregular off-site piece labour, and the impasse was the cause of strikes within the industry in 1899-1900.

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tff

Does your daily commute look like this? If it does, I'll bet that you wish you could go back to a time when Brisbane's traffic was a lot lighter.

(Photo: couriermail.com.au)

Would you go this far back? Here is Brisbane's first motor car, photographed in Elizabeth St in 1902.

(Photo: SLQ 257640)

While the city would be empty of cars, the early motorist would have had to contend with unpredictable horses, poor roads and a lack of auto mechanics. From a driver's perspective this early vehicle had wheelsthat would not be out of place on a bicycle and a tiller for steering. I doubt that it was safe or comfortable.

The car in this photograph was known as a Locomobile and was actually steam-powered. It is being driven by Mr James Trackson and his wife is the passenger. To say that Trackson was an enthusiast would be no exaggeration - he was also the first in Brisbane to own an internal combustion car; and in 1905 he was one of the founders of the RACQ, Queensland's motoring body.

Trackson built his own motor car which was dubbed "The Trackson". It was based on a two-cylinder De Dion-Bouton car imported from France in 1900, powered by a 5 hp petrol engine and had a reported top speed of 25 km/h.

James Trackson came to Australia from Norwich in England and he was a qualified electrical engineer. He was associated with erecting the first phone exchange in Melbourne and at Ballarat, and also helped lay the Melbourne cable tramways. He came to Queensland in 1895, and after erecting the first telephone exchange in Queensland he established an engineering firm, Trackson Bros.

James Trackson lived at Newmarket at a property called Sedgley Grange, photographed below.

(Photo: SLQ 121716)

The house was demolished in 1991 and the property is now called Sedgley Park, administered by Brisbane City Council. It is the site of the well-known Newmarket Olympic Pool.

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tff

In an earlier post I mentioned the proposed upgrade to one of Brisbane's busiest roads, Kingsford Smith Drive, hoping that the roadworks would not be too detrimental to the area and to traffic flow.

Here is another reason for the utmost care to be taken - one of Brisbane's war memorials, this one in a stunning riverside setting at Cameron Rocks. Here is a current image.

(Photo: Kgbo via Wikimedia)

The memorial was unveiled on 16 August 1931 by the governor, Sir John Goodwin. It is situated on the riverbank at Albion, sandwiched between the Brisbane River and Kingsford Smith Drive, just downstream from Breakfast Creek. The memorial to WWI vets from the area is used each year for Anzac Day ceremonies.

The web site Monument Australia discloses the following information about it:

The Hamilton Town Council proposed erecting a memorial at Cameron Rocks as a memorial to the soldiers who left the town to fight in the Great War. The project was started during the war but the Council was prevented by Commonwealth edict from raising money. It remained in abeyance until 1922, when the Mayor Alderman CM Jenkinson received further donations. In 1924, there was enough money to start but not complete the memorial. It was planned to erect a pagoda in the form of a Victoria Cross surmounted by a tower with a four face clock with a water fountain installed in the centre of the pagoda. The memorial was unveiled in its present form by the Governor of Queensland Lieutenant-General Sir John Goodwin on the 16th August 1931.
The Brisbane Courier , 9th January & 10th March 1924, 17th August 1931

Kingsford Smith Drive is to be widened to six traffic lanes plus the addition of walking and bicycle lanes. The extra real estate required will come from using clever engineering over the river together with some resumption of properties. The web pages outlining the work to be done talk about the "rejuvenation" of the Cameron Rocks reserve, including a refurbished memorial. Not a lot of detail.

Let's hope that this piece of history that was such a struggle at inception is not adversely effected by any change.

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tff

(Photo: www.museumofbrisbane.com.au) "Lady with umbrella", Richard Randall

Richard Randall, painter, had a short but productive life. Although aged only 36 at the time of his death in 1906 which followed a fall from a horse, the Brisbane-born Randall had produced a large volume of his own work, and as a teacher was instrumental in establishing an art scene in his home town.

Richard Randall was born in South Brisbane in 1869, the son of George Randall who was a well-known and successful businessman. It appears that George was supportive of his son's artistic efforts and was prepared to underwrite Richard's travel and study overseas. George Randall also became an emigration agent for Queensland, and his extensive contact list was also beneficial to Robert who was able to paintportraits of many distinguished people.

Richard Randall returned to Brisbane from working in England in 1899, apparently at the request of his father who thought that Richard should promote art in the colony. Richard set about establishing a studio in South Brisbane in which he could work and teach. The resultant building was modelled on studios he had seen in England, and it featured large windows and a skylight that were fitted with blinds to control the light.

After Richard's untimely death his father George gathered up as many of his works as he could and donated them in trust to the South Brisbane Council. They were held for a time in the South Brisbane Library and then moved to Brisbane City Hall. They remain at City Hall as part of the Museum of Brisbane.

The studio has had a checkered life. Brisbane's much-awaited Expo required extensive resumption of property in South Brisbane. For a while the studio was threatened too, but it was bought by the Brisbane City Council and thus saved. The upper part of the studio was kept and relocated to Musgrave Park in South Brisbane, but here it was subject to vandalism; so it was moved again, this time to the botanical gardens at Mt Coot-tha where it can be seen today. It is listed on the state heritage register.

(Photo: ehp.qld.gov.au)

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tff

It has always been a source of wonder to me that Australia's early free settlers left Europe on a dangerous voyage to an even more dangerous land;not knowing what they would find when they got there, unprepared for the new world's flora, fauna and Indigenous inhabitants and totally unsuited for the seasons being in reverse and much hotter than whence they came. Many of them overcame all of these trials and collectively made the country that we are so proud of today.

One local story concerns the McConnel family on whom we have touched before in this earlier post about Bulimba House, the residence they built in Brisbane around 1850.

David McConnel was born in Manchester in 1818 and emigrated to the Moreton Bay colony in 1840. In 1844 he established his station Cressbrook in the Upper Brisbane River near the present town of Esk. Intended to be a sheep run but found to be unsuitable for that purpose, Cressbrook became a shorthorn beef stud. Cressbrook is today is still in the hands of the McConnel family. According to its web pages it is Queensland’s oldest residence, Queensland’s oldest identified family business and one of Australia’s third oldest identified family businesses.

In this post I want to look at the life of David's wife Mary McConnel in the early days of Cressbrook. David made a return visit to the Old Country in 1847, and in 1848 marriedMary, a Scot, in Edinburgh and they arrived back in Moreton Bay in 1849. The house at Bulimba was their Brisbane base and some reports state that initially Mary stayed in Brisbane for health reasons, although she did live at Cressbrook later on. Here is an undated photograph of the couple.

(Photo: SLQ 110184)

Can you imagine what life would have been like in the 1850s on a cattle property four day's ride from Brisbane? Let's start with the obvious things we take for granted today - no telephone, no electricity, no sewerage, probably no running water, transport by horse and/or buggy, no access to medical help and supplies to be imported from Brisbane or Ipswich. No church for the deeply religious McConnels and no school for any offspring. And for a woman living far from home in a totally unfamiliar environment, I imagine, a sense of loneliness.

One report about her says:

'Mary used what she had to make her drab environment look cheerful. A roll of unbleached calico was good for curtains, cushions and covers. She took twelve of her husband’s red silk handkerchiefs, cut them into strips, used them as binding for the covers, “and then I had a pretty room to sit in”.'

David McConnel helped other immigrants who arrived in Moreton Bay by providing work and often selling allotments of land to them on favourable terms. The Cressbrook Station web site relates that David McConnel and his brothers John and Frederick ran the property together until 1861 when the partnership dissolved, leaving David and Mary to run Cressbrook. The web page then says:

'...with the number of construction and station workers on Cressbrook now significant enough to establish a small township which included a butcher shop, post office, carpenters shop, blacksmiths and schoolhouse, with weekly church services held in the hallway at the main residence.'

The Cressbrook homestead had been a school room during the week and a church on Sundays. Mary herself taught lessons and Scripture, then hired a full-time teacher; she started a library and held a weekly mothers' meeting - all the while being the mistress of the house and attending to its associated duties and entertaining visitors.

Tragedy in the form of the death of two infant sons led Mary to contemplate child health and welfare issues. She campaigned for a children's hospital and started fundraising. On a trip to the UK she visited children's hospitals to observe their methods of operation, and with the help of her brother, a doctor, enlisted staff.

When she returned to Brisbane she was able to oversee the opening of a children's hospital in a modified house in Spring Hill in March 1878. This facility was later transferred to Bowen Hills and became the Royal Children's Hospital. Here is a photograph of the hospital's nursing staff from around 1895.

(Photo: SLQ 88256)

Much of Australia's pioneer history has been written about men. Women like Mary McConnel deserve to have their story told too. In a harsh environment and with few tools compared with today's households they were the backbone of the country.

David McConnel died in June 1885 and Mary McConnel passed away in January 1910.

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tff

To follow the last post about Mary McConnel, here is a snippet about another member of the McConnel family.

John McConnel was the younger brother of David McConnel (Mary's husband) and followed David to Moreton Bay in 1842. With a third brother, Frederick, the McConnels were partners in Cressbrook station as mentioned in the previous post. When the partnership was wound up in 1861 John McConnel became a member of the Legislative Council, the upper house of the Queensland parliament (since abolished). It would be interesting to know whether John's new occupation was the cause or effect of the Cressbrook partnership being wound up.

In 1864 John McConnel commissioned architect Benjamin Backhouse to build him a fine residence at Shorncliffe, overlooking Moreton Bay. This is what it looked like circa 1904.

(Photo: SLQ 177631)

The house was sold to solicitor David Brown in the mid-1880s, and he named it Morven after his Scottish home town. Apparently at around this time the house was leased extensively as a summer residence by the then governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Wylie Norman.

There were several changes of ownership including a period where it operated as a guest house, until around 1951 when Morvenwas purchased by the parish priest of Sandgate, Fr O'Rourke, whose intention was for it to become a boys' school, and that is the function of the building today. It is part of St Patrick's, a Christian Brothers college, and it opened in 1952 with an enrolment of 172 students and now has over 1200 young men who would have celebrated St Patrick's Day last week.

Here is a current photograph of Morven as seen on the school's web pages.

(Photo: http://www.stpatricks.qld.edu.au/)

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tff

Australia Post is not my favourite at the moment. The other day I waited at home for a parcel that the Australia Post internet tracker told me would be delivered on that day. It never came. Then in the late afternoon I received a text message saying that I could pick it up at the local post office. No postie had knocked at my door and no "not at home" card was in my letter box. So the postie must have decided that he couldn't be bothered delivering to my place on that day - he just made a unilateral decision that he would leave it at the post office. I wonder how many others had the same experience that day.

(Photo: brisbanetimes.com.au)

It raises a host of issues. I had paid for express delivery to my residence and was clearly short-changed. I had to catch a bus to the post office to collect the parcel, and catch another bus back home carrying the parcel. Damned inconvenient at the time for me, but what if I was someone with a disability or no means to get to the post office? What if it was urgently needed medication? What use is an internet tracking service that advises you to stay at home to collect a delivery when that delivery never occurs? How many lost hours and how much lost productivity results?

I might point out that this has occurred before - several times over the last few years, in fact - so it is definitely not a one-off. The postie has actually delivered successfully at other times, so there is no physical problem that prevents delivery. Phone calls to Australia Post raise barely a flicker of interest at the other end. They tell me that the postie should make an attempt to deliver at the address, they promise to check, but still it occurs.

It is well documented that Australia Post's letter delivery service is losing money hand over fist. The increasing use of text messages, email services and social media where messages, photos, music etc can be sent electronically and received almost immediately anywhere in the world is obviously decimating "snail mail" as it has become known.

Australia Post has indicated that it wants to focus on its parcel delivery service to replace the revenue being lost in the letter division. Well, good luck with that, because if service standards are not better than what I have experienced the competition (and there is plenty of that) will chew up Australia Post and spit out the bits.

Posting a letter to an address in Australia now costs the sender $1.00! One dollar for a standard letter. I'm flabbergasted, particularly seeing that the mail transit times are increasing rather than decreasing. Increasing the unit cost is hardly likely to bring in extra customers - $1.00 for a letter vs a few cents for an SMS or email is a no-brainer, after all.

Of course we all send emails today. From little tackers to great-grannies, people are emailing and texting in ever-increasing numbers. Even Clive Palmer's five year-old can send a text, apparently!

It did make me think about the changes to the mail service over the years.

The Australia Post web site tells me that way back in 1809 a man named Isaac Nichols was appointed to attend to all mail received in the colony of New South Wales, thus creating the first formal postal service in Australia. He was a man before his time as he operated from his home. He listed the names of those who received mail in the colony's newspaper and they came and collected their mail.

Over time, mail collection became mail delivery.

(Photo: SLQ 42743)

The photo above shows mail delivery on horseback in Brisbane in 1913. The postie depicted delivered mail in the Newmarket, Wilston, Grange, Enoggera and Ashgrove areas.

And I bet that it was a tad more reliable than today's service.

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If you walk down Edward St towards the Brisbane River you will come to a building that we have looked at previously - the Port Office Hotel, named after the old Port Office building (now the Stamford Plaza Hotel) situated on the other side of the street near the northern entrance to the Botanical Gardens.

On the Edward St wall of the Port Office Hotel is the sculpture named "Frogs Hollow" shown in the photograph below.

(Photo: © 2016 the foto fanatic)

The piece was created by Christopher Trotter as part of his "Nature" series, several of which are dotted around the CBD, and it is a physical representation of the name that was given to this area in days gone by. If you look at the work you can pick out the frogs, toadstools and reeds that used to be present in this low-lying part of Brisbane.

Frogs Hollow was a marshy and unpleasant area bounded by Edward, Alice, Albert and Charlotte Streets that became waterloggedwhen it rained. In really heavy rain, the area used to become flood-bound, as can be seen in the following image taken during the 1864 floods, looking down Charlotte St from George St towards Edward St.

(Photo: SLQ 22130)

Frogs Hollow became notorious for other reasons too. The noxious nature of the terrain seemed to attract the seamier side of Brisbane's inhabitants and businesses. The susceptibility to flooding meant that rents for buildings constructed there were relatively cheap, thereby attracting the poor and the disadvantaged and making Frogs Hollow a part of the town where criminal activity flourished. Brisbane historian Rod Fisher described it as being home to many of the city’s public houses, hostels, gambling joints, brothels and opium dens. He described it as a:

"rare clustering of drunkards, prostitutes, larrikins, thieves and assailants who, in one way or other, lived off the visitors, mariners, and new arrivals at the many boarding-houses, lodgings and hotels"

One estimate in the late 1880's indicated that as many as 50 percent of cases that came before the Police Court originated in Frogs Hollow.

The cheaper dwellings and the moist conditions also attracted another group - the Chinese. Some were market gardeners but many more were involved in illegal gambling and drugs. Sometimes attempts were made to close down the illegal establishments and on occasions this resulted in full-scale riots.

Gradually though, Brisbane expanded and Frogs Hollow was drained and cleaned up as businesses moved there. The construction of buildings such as Watson Bros and HB Sales brought people to the area, gradually forcing out the opium dens and brothels.

Click here for a Google Map.

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LEST WE FORGET

We have seen evidence of the work of well-known architect Andrea Stombuco in these pages before.

Today we will examine a builder who converted many of Stombuco's dreams into reality. He was an Irish immigrant named John Arthur Manus O'Keeffe.

O'Keeffe came to Australia in 1857 and initially settled in Toowoomba where he worked as a builder, possibly on the railways. Next we find him, a decade later, mining the gold fields of Gympie. This activity allowed O'Keeffe to amass a sizeable land holding, mainly heavily wooded, from where he would be able to source timber for the construction work he was about to undertake.

By the end of the 1870s O'Keeffe had moved with his wife and family to Spring Hill in Brisbane in order to embark on the career for which he is best remembered. In the Brisbane boom-times of the 1880s his company would construct many of Brisbane's most notable buildings.

The firm of Messrs O'Keeffe & Co operated mainly in the private sector, eschewing the government construction work that was also plentiful at this time. Among his non-Stombuco accomplishments were the fabulous Dura at Hendra, designed by HGO Thomas, built by O'Keeffe in 1888-89 and known now as Glengariff; as well as Collins Place built in 1889-90 at South Brisbane for hotelier Michael Foley (pictured below, Glengariff top & Collins Place bottom).

(Photo: SLQ 145445)

(Photo: ehp.qld.gov.au)

Around this time he created Stombuco's impressive Her Majesty's Opera House in Queen St, shown in the drawing below. Regrettably this ornate building was demolished during the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era of destruction.

(Photo: SLQ 16875)

Also of note were the terrace houses situated on Petrie Terrace that came to be home for the O'Keeffe family and now are a Brisbane landmark close to the Normanby Fiveways. They are pictured here in 1977, prior to a restoration.

Stombuco was also an accomplished ecclesiastical architect who had already designed several churches in Victoria, and in Brisbane he designed these churches that were built by O'Keeffe - firstly St Patrick's Catholic Church at Fortitude Valley.

(Photo: SLQ 7908)

And also St Andrew's Anglican Church at South Brisbane.

(Photo: SLQ 189987)

Then there was the building meant to be Stombuco's own residence (Sans Souci, now Palma Rosa) where O'Keeffe was the principal contractor, the others being Andrew Petrie (stonework) and John Watson (plumbing). Unfortunately for Stombuco he wasn't able to reside there - at least not for long, as the building boom in Brisbane was soon to end.

(Photo: SLQ 128011)

The boom era of the 1880s preceded the bust of the 1890s. A financial melt-down together with the natural disasters of the huge floods of 1890 and 1893 caused many businesses to fail. Stambuco left Brisbane for Perth in 1891, never to return.

O'Keeffe's business was forced into liquidation but he managed to repay most of his debts before his death in 1913 at the age of 76.

Note: Historian Rod Fisher completed what he has called his "farewell to Brisbane arms" in 2011 prior to moving to Brazil - a thoroughly researched opus called "The Best of Colonial Brisbane", and the information presented here is drawn mainly from that source.

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Theodore Oscar Unmack was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1835 and came to Australia in 1853. After several years in Victoria he moved to Queensland in 1860 where he achieved success in business and politics.

For a time Unmack was engaged in the wholesale produce business with another German immigrant, Johann Heussler, and they operated out of Tara House (later to become the home of the Irish Club) in Elizabeth St. It appears that Unmack gave a regular market report that was published in the press for the benefiit of his fellow citizens. From The Queenslander:

THEODOREUNMACK'S PRODUCE REPORT,
WHOLESALE. (The Queenslander, 21 August 1875)
There is little change in the market since
last week; business has, if anything, improved.
The holidays have, however, tended to keep it
quiet. Flour steady; maize brisker; demand
good ; bran in average request; potatoes very
dull of sale, market being crowded with sellers,
and consumption moderate; hay still over
stocked and quiet; butter well supplied, and
in moderate demand. Bacon, 9d per lb ; bran,
£9 per ton j butter, 9d per lb; flour, best
Adelaide, £24 to £26 per ton; flour, Tas
mania, £22 to £24 per ton; hay, lucerne, £9
to £10 per ton ; hay, oaten, £8 to £9 per ton;
maize, 5s 8d to 5s 6d per bushel; oats, 4s 6d
to 5s per bushel; potatoes, nominal; onions,
none ; pollard, £9 10* per ton; soap, £30 per
top ; mould candles, 51/2d to 6d per lb

Unmack, a prominent Freemason, was the German Consul for two years as well as president of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1888 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the member for Toowong and subsequently acted as the Postmaster-General and Secretary for Railways. Here is a photograph from 1889.

(Photo: SLQ 69368)

In 1885 Unmack purchased land at Moray St, New Farm where he built the subject of today's post - the imposing house overlooking the Brisbane River that he named Moana, a Hawaiian word meaning water or sea, but probably "borrowed" from the name of a hotel. Here are photographs of it, front and back, from 1932. The view from the rear also includes the maids' quarters, testament to the status of the owner of the house.

(Photo: SLQ 19407)

(Photo: SLQ 19406)

Architects Banks and Carandini designed Moana and it is believed to be the last surviving example of their domestic architecture. The Unmack family lived there until the early 1920s when it was converted to flats. Theodore Unmack died in 1919.

Moana appears on the Brisbane City Council heritage register. Although it has been modified in the conversion to flats and then the conversion back to a single dwelling in 1986, much of the original character of the house remains. The latest sale of the property I could find was in October 2010 for a tad over $3 million. This is what it looked like at the time.

(Photo: realestate.com)

And here is today's quick look over the fence at Moana.

The irregular posting to the blog is the result of a recent bereavement. Things are still a bit tough but I hope normal transmission will be achieved shortly.

It’s always a welcome occurrence when people provide information for the blog. Most of the information in this post was sent to me by reader Lyndon who has researched the building we are examining today. The building is named Evesham and it overlooks the Brisbane River in the classy suburb of Hamilton. My thanks to Lyndon for allowing me to publish some of the information he has gathered about Evesham. Here is a view of it taken just after the building’s completion.

(Photo: wikimedia.org)

And here is a more recent image.

(Photo: Caco Photography)

Evesham was designed by leading Brisbane architect Mervyn Rylance for Mrs Evelyn Thomason who moved into the building in June 1937. Mrs Thomason was a well-known Brisbane socialite and the Brisbane newspaper Truth carried an extensive article on the Spanish Mission styled structure on 11 July of that year. Although it appears as one residence, she commissioned Rylance to design the building as four large flats, each with unobstructed views of the river. I assume that the intent was to live in one and derive an income from the others.

(Photos: L-Truth 1937; R-Caco Photography)

Evelyn Thomason (nee Horsman) was born in Cooktown in March 1880 and grew up in Rockhampton where her father was a publican. The family moved to Sydney in 1904, but Evelyn moved back to Brisbane in 1906 to marry HW Thomason, a partner in a thriving chemist practice around the Woolloongabba-South Brisbane precinct. A building in the Woolloongabba Fiveways still has the Thomason name at the top as has another at Stones Corner. In 1907 they moved to a house on the Rathdonnell estate at Auchenflower. The estate became available for purchase in 1911 and it was bought by Mrs Thomason who moved into Rathdonnell House and subdivided the land, selling off the house that she had originally occupied.

During the thirty years that the Thomasons lived at Rathdonnell it was the scene of many parties, social gatherings, sporting events and fund raising activities. Music, in particular, was at the centre of much of the entertaining that occurred - Evelyn was an accomplished violin player and all the family played an instrument. The family was obviously very well-off as there were regular holidays to Tamborine and Southport and southern cities as well as overseas trips. HW Thomason was almost twenty years older than his wife Evelynand was aged 76 when the family moved to Evesham. Newspaper reports indicated that he had still been working as a chemist on his 74th birthday, but I do not know when (or if) he retired or when he died.

(Photo: pinterest)

This social life did not change when the family moved to Hamilton. Lyndon reports that the German opera singer Madame Lotte Lehmann was a temporary resident at Evesham while she was performing a season at Brisbane's City Hall. It was Madame Lehmann who "discovered" the von Trapp family singing in a garden in Austria and encouraged them to enter a musical contest which they won, subsequently the genesis of the famous film "The Sound of Music". Here is a photograph from Brisbane's Telegraph newspaper showing Madame Lehmann at the piano at Evesham entertaining a kookaburra. Kookaburras must have fascinated her as there is video evidence of her singing a duet with one.

(Photo: wikimedia.org)

Evelyn Thomason lived at Evesham until she died in 1970, but family members continued to live there for a time after that. The building, then under one title, was eventually sold to the Kirby family in 1980.

Evesham's four apartments have since been strata titled, and my correspondent Lyndon tells me that the body corporate has been diligent in preserving the character of the building which will be 80 years old next year.

Here is a final look at Evesham nestled among neighbours overlooking the river.

(Photo: Caco Photography)

Click here for a Google Map.

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We take an awful lot for granted today.

Consider the following work history of unionist and politician Thomas Glassey, born in Armagh, Ireland in 1844:

First employed in an Irish linen mill at the age of six. That's not a typo - age 6!
Became a letter carrier at the pay rate of one shilling per week. That's 10 cents in today's coinage, although the real value equivalent would be in the order of $6.
Factory worker - four pence per day.
Moved to a new town; employed as factory worker at the rate of five pence per 12-hour day.
At age 10 left home, employed in a new job at eight pence per day
Around age 13 moved from Ireland to Scotland and became a coal miner at eighteen pence per day.

It comes as no surprise that from those humble and physically tough origins Thomas Glassey became involved in the trade union movement in Scotland and later in Queensland. He was blacklisted because of his union activism in Scotland, moving to Bedlington in England in 1867 where he was active in politics and charitable works, becoming a member of the local Board of Health in 1881-83.

He emigrated to Australia in 1884, initially joining the post office then becoming an auctioneer, but coal mining was not far from his thoughts. He was approached to convene a meeting in 1886 that was the inauguration of the Ipswich Coal Miners' Mutual Protective Association of which he became secretary.

(Photo: National Library of Australia; nla.pic-an23431938)

In 1888 Glassey was elected to parliament in the seat of Bundamba, representing the interests of the labour movement, and he is seen as being Australia's first Labor MP. He was parliamentary leader of the Labor Party in Queensland 1894-99. He had an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Sir Thomas McIlwraith in North Brisbane in 1893, and was then in a political merry-go-round for a few years until emerging as a Queensland Senator in the federal parliament in 1901. Seen as a zealot by some of his contemporaries, Thomas Glassey was a progressive politician for the times and quite popular with electors. Here are some of the policies he pursued in state and federal politics:

Eight Hour Day
Married Women's Property Bill
Cessation of Kanaka labour; although he did support a White Australia policy
Federation

Glassey's wife died in 1899 and he lost his senate seat in 1903. He was unsuccessful at several further attempts at politics and he accepted a role as an immigration officer in England for Queensland in 1911-12.

In 1909 he purchased a house named Ellersie in New Farm where he lived until he died in 1936, the property remaining in his family until the 1960s. The house is still standing next to New Farm State School and can be seen in the following photo. Ellersie, listed on the BCC Heritage Register, was built around 1888 in the Brisbane boom years and was possibly designed by Andrea Stombuco.

(Photo: google.com.au)

In the final phase of his life, Glassey became somewhat estranged from the Labor Party as a result of becoming a director of New Aberdare Colliery Ltd from 1913, then joining the formation of the Queensland Nationalist Party in 1917.

However in 1938 a monument to Glassey's service to the coal mining industry was erected in the heart of Ipswich mining territory on Limestone Hill.

(Photo: www.monumentaustralia.org.au)

Click here for a Google Map.

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JPC Building, 327 George St

Gordon & Gotch Building, Adelaide St

Inglis Tea Building, 510 Adelaide St

McDonnell & East, George St

Grosvenor Hotel, George St

Royal Bank of Queensland, George St

Goldsworthy & Perkins Boot Factory, Newstead

James Trackson and Brisbane's first motor car

Cameron Rocks War Memorial

Richard Randall's Art Studio, Toowong

Mary McConnel and Royal Children's Hospital

John McConnel and Morven, Shorncliffe

Delivering the mail

Frogs Hollow, Brisbane CBD

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JAM O'Keeffe, builder

Moana, New Farm

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Evesham, Hamilton

Ellersie, New Farm & Thomas Glassey, labour pioneer