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Fresh Bid For Crossing Safety

The City Council will inform the Minister for Transport (Mr. J. E. Duggan) that it considers that the level crossing on Brisbane-road, near the racecourse, is dangerous to road users.

This was decided by the council last night when a reply from the Minister to the council’s complaint was considered. The Minister stated that the crossing was well protected by road signs and if ordinary care, which was essential by road users, were taken, no difficulty should be experienced.

The council asked the Minister to give further consideration to its request for more adequate warning signs.

Description source:
Queensland Times, 15 December 1950

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Digital Image ID 16608

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Sir Henry Abel Smith (1900-1993), army officer and governor, was born on 8 March 1900 at Westminster, London. He was tutored privately at home and, though a member of one of England’s oldest private-banking families, chose an army career. Entering the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned in the Royal Horse Guards in 1919.

He married Lady May Helen Emma Cambridge (1906-1994), a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Following a very successful military career during the course of World War II, Abel Smith was promoted to acting colonel in London in 1946, and served on the staff of the Household Cavalry at Whitehall and worked closely with King George Vi to revive the ceremonial life od the peacetime capital.

Abel Smith’s assumed the role of governor of Queensland on 18 March 1958. Queenslanders took an immediate liking to the couple and their popularity grew quickly. Both

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Sir Gordon William Wesley Chalk (1913-1991), politician, was born on 16 May 1913 at Rosewood, Queensland. His first direct connection with politics came in 1929 when he assisted a Country and Progressive National Party candidate, Edmund Bede Maher, in his successful campaign for the State seat of Rosewood.

In 1957, when the Labor Party’s Queensland split propelled the Country-Liberal coalition into office, Chalk became the transport minister in the Nicklin government. Transport proved a difficult portfolio, but Chalk’s reputation and influence grew.

When Nicklin’s successor, Jack Pizzey, suffered a fatal heart attack on 31 July 1968, Chalk assumed the premiership, but not without resistance from the Country Party deputy, Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen. Bjelke-Petersen prevailed and Chalk was premier only for the period 1-8 August.

‘Chalkie’ had a reputation as a capable and hardworking if somewhat blunt minister, with a cheerful demeanour. He had a stocky build, and wore

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In Australia, panel vans were a development of the Australian “ute” (utility), a variety of pickup based on a car chassis They were first offered by Holden from December 1953 in the FJ model, and by Ford Australia from May 1961, based on the XK Falcon.

Painters, electricians, and general labourers quickly found panel vans ideal for their trades, as the cargo bay offering extended capacity otherwise wasted in passenger space, and a highly customisable interior, without the bulk or extended dimensions of other longer-base vans.

Australian police forces also purchased fleets of panel vans to use in a black maria, or paddywagon, role. These were known formally as Divisional Vans and in slang as Divvy Vans.

Panel vans enjoyed tremendous popularity in Australia throughout the 1970s, but by the late 1980s, they began to slowly disappear from Australian roads as demand fell and major manufacturers slowly ceased

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World Conference On Road Safety Urged

Perth, September 4.- A world conference on road safety is to be proposed to the Commonwealth Transport Department following a Road Safety Council Convention here last week, attended by 30 delegates from all the States.

A report by the chairman, the Acting Director of Commonwealth Road Transport (Mr. T. G. Paterson) showed that Australia’s personal accident rate of killed and injured compared unfavourably with that of New Zealand and the United States.

It was decided that £10,000 should be allocated for road safety Press advertising and that the allocation for radio should be increased to £20,000.

The Queensland delegates recorded their dissent at the small amount spent in Press advertising in that State. Inadequate enforcement of traffic laws handicapped the campaign to educate motorists and pedestrians in road safety practices, it was stated.

Description source:
The Central Queensland Herald, 8 September 1949

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