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Coorparoo Shire Hall, Coorparoo
Just up the road from Coorparoo State School, the building once known as Coorparoo Shire Hall was opened on 7 October 1892, four years after the proclamation of the Shire of Coorparoo. A memorial roll...
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Grangehill, Spring Hill
This expansive home situated on Gregory Terrace opposite Victoria Park was built in the early 1860s for Alexander Raff, a Scottish immigrant who arrived in Brisbane in 1851. He bought the land on which...
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The Commander's Residence, Enoggera
In 1908 the Australian Government acquired some 1200 acres of land about seven kilometres from Brisbane for the purposes of military training - we know it now as Gallipoli Barracks, but when I was...
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Submariners' Walk Heritage Trail, Teneriffe
Of course, Anzac Day always makes me think of young men going to war, and in particular those who didn't return. I have never experienced armed conflict first hand and have absolutely no desire to do...
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Eastwood, East Brisbane
I just stumbled across this superbly presented Federation house in East Brisbane that is currently listed for sale. It appeared in The Weekend Australian Magazine of 13 April.(Photo:...
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York's Hollow (Victoria Park), Spring Hill
Situated pretty much in the centre of Brisbane's large metropolitan area is a green space that we know as Victoria Park. It has been the the landscape behind many of Brisbane's famous and infamous...
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Rayner's Gourmet Meats, New Farm
On the right side of this little building is my local butcher, Rayners Gourmet Meats. We always refer to it as "going to see Mr Rayner" or "this beautiful beef comes from Mr Rayner", even though there...
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The Petrie family - Andrew Petrie
It would be difficult to imagine a family that had a greater impact on the earliest days of Brisbane than the Petries. Patriarch Andrew Petrie (pictured above) trained in Edinburgh as a builder and...
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Mount Coot-tha Lookout
Brisbane is a hilly city, and the highest hill is Mount Coot-tha, formerly known as One Tree Hill. It probably is a hill rather than a mountain - hardly an Everest, Mount Coot-tha has been measured at...
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Nindooinbah
About 80 km south-west of Brisbane lies the heritage homestead Nindooinbah. There are many stories that intertwine to complete the history of Nindooinbah and I won't have room to tell them all here....
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Cribb Island
Recently a reader (Hi Jenny!) suggested a post about the former suburb of Cribb Island. Initially I dismissed the suggestion because I didn't know too much about it, but a couple of things drew me back...
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The Petrie Family - John Petrie
(Photo: State Library of Queensland and John Oxley Library; #17153)The eldest of Andrew Petrie's children, John Petrie was groomed from childhood to take over his father's business. John received...
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The Petrie Family - Tom Petrie
When Andrew Petrie and his family left Scotland in 1831, the youngest child, Tom, was a only a few months old. They arrived in Sydney on October of that year, and in 1837 the family moved north to the...
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Post #500
When I started this blog in January 2009 I had no idea that I would reach 100 posts, let alone 500. But Blogger tells me that this will be the 500th post published, so I am accepting their...
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My blog "Your Brisbane: Past and Present" has been selected by the State Library of Queensland to be archived as part of PANDORA, Australia's web archive. In due course it will be catalogued and made...
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Remembrance Day
Today is Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day as it used to be known. It commemorates the anniversary of the armistice that terminated WWI, the Great War. There was never meant to be another one like it,...
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Where were you?
I was fourteen years old and in my first year at high school. I was also working part-time after school and on the weekends at our local store that was just a couple of blocks from my home.On this...
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What is happening to our heritage listed buildings?
I was struck by this piece in the local Fairfax press (www.brisbanetimes.com.au)which warns that our local heritage is going up in smoke. In the last couple of weeks arsonists have destroyed the...
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