The Brisbane Floods of 1893
Timber houses, many with residents clinging onto them, floated down the Brisbane River, bridges collapsed, huge ships were stranded in the Botanic Gardens, and barrels of beer floated through the streets. That was Brisbane 130 years ago, during the disastrous floods...
Count Gontran de Tournouer
Brisbane history can often yield fascinating stories surrounding the many inhabitants of this great city. One such story centres around a remarkable man by the name of Gontran Louise Henri Marie Phillipe De Tournouer. He was a French national who settled in...
Whalebone arch at Bowen Park
Visitors to the Queensland Acclimatisation Society’s (QAS) gardens in Bowen Park between 1887 and 1956 would have immediately noticed the entrance, an imposing arch made of a beached whale’s jaw bones. The whale was found stranded at Hervey’s Bay, Maryborough, in...
Meteor Downs
Charles Tyson has conducted extensive research into Meteor Downs in central Queensland, which you can read below: Meteor Downs by Charles Tyson
Springsure, Central Queensland
The Central Queensland town of Springsure is at the terminus of two major thoroughfares – the Gregory Highway (running south from the Gulf country) and the Dawson Highway, which runs west from Gladstone on the coast. Ludwig Leichhardt explored the district between...
Record-breaking Flight
In 1919 brothers Ross and Keith Smith, with mechanics James Bennett and Wally Shiers, were the first Australians to fly a British aircraft from Great Britain to Australia. They piloted this converted Vickers Vimy twin-engine bomber G-EAOU (affectionately known as ‘God...
Rationing in Queensland
During the Second World War (1939 – 1945), Australia, in common with other Allied nations, rationed important commodities, including food, petrol, rubber, and clothing. Australia implemented rationing for a variety of reasons, including reduced imports, a smaller...