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JPC Building, 327 George St
While today's post will have the usual discussion points around people and buildings, an outdated item of ladies underwear will also feature prominently.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...
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Gordon & Gotch Building, Adelaide St
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...
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Inglis Tea Building, 510 Adelaide St
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...
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McDonnell & East, George St
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....
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Grosvenor Hotel, George St
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...
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Royal Bank of Queensland, George St
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...
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Goldsworthy & Perkins Boot Factory, Newstead
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...
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James Trackson and Brisbane's first motor car
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?...
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Cameron Rocks War Memorial
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...
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Richard Randall's Art Studio, Toowong
(Photo: www.museumofbrisbane.com.au) "Lady with umbrella", Richard RandallRichard Randall, painter, had a short but productive life. Although aged only 36 at the time of his death in 1906 which...
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Mary McConnel and Royal Children's Hospital
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,...
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John McConnel and Morven, Shorncliffe
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...
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Delivering the mail
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...
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Frogs Hollow, Brisbane CBD
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...
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JAM O'Keeffe, builder
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...
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Moana, New Farm
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...
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Evesham, Hamilton
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...
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Ellersie, New Farm & Thomas Glassey, labour pioneer
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...
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