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16 ft simplex economy windmill, Toowoomba, c 1890

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Toowomba Foundry

The Toowoomba Foundry is located in Ruthven Street on a prominent site adjacent to the Defiance Flour Mill and the Toowoomba Railway Station. It was established in 1871 by George Washington Griffiths and continually operated as a foundry until 2012.

Owend by the Griffiths family descendants until 1987 when it was purchased by National Consolidated, the Foundry is one of the last surviving 19th century industries on the Darling Downs. Among other products, it produced rolling stock for Queensland Railways, and the Southern Cross windmill, one of the most enduring icons on the Downs.

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The Foundry struggled during its early years, with Griffiths receiving funding from his father to cover debts. However, by 1881 the business had improved and the foundry was “making steam engines and boiler, wool and other presses, washpool requirements, spouting and soap tanks, pumps, windmills, troughing, castings – iron or brass, ironwork

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Evan's Monument, Main Range, Toowoomba, c 1931

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

THE MONUMENT OF GEORGE ESSEX EVANS.

(For the “Post” and “Herald.”)

It is a moot question whether the people of Toowoomba in particular, and those of Queensland and Australia generally, have yet realise, and as an outcome of this realisation, appreciated the greatness of the man, George Essex Evans, and his works.

During many years he was one of Toowoomba’s own people, and from his mountain home there was sent forth from time to time flashes of that poetic genius that dwelt within the man. We read his lilting lines which carried our thoughts onward and upward to those higher realms of fancy where was wont to dwell. But the day came when the lute no longer gave forth its sweet strains – the hand that swept its strings lay for ever silent. The spirit of George Essex Evans had passed to the “Great Beyond”. Then only did

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Mt Beerwah 1760 Ft, from Coonowrin, 23 March 1894

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

LIVES RISKED IN NIGHT RESCUE

Hazardous Feat in Rain on Mt. Beerwah

Struggling up the precipitous face of Beerwah Mountain in pitch darkness and driving rain, three residents of Glass House Mountains rescued two men who had been stranded at the top of the 1700-foot peak last week.

So slippery were the rock faces that the rescuers – Messrs. B. Croning, R. McCosker, and H. McCosker – had to climb in bare feet. Had any man lost his footing on the ledges he would have fallen a sheer 300 feet to the rocks below.

At 10 a.m. on Sunday two men arrived by car from Cooroy, and climbed Beerwah Mountain, one of several peaks in the Glasshouse group.

Apparently on arriving at the summit they were unable to find their way down again. As there is only one practicable way up the peak, they were forced to stay where they

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Picnic Point Lookout, Main Range, Toowoomba, c 1931

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Picnic Point.

By “CANNIE.”

WHAT thoughts of care-free happiness one associates with Picnic Point, especially Toowoomba children who have enjoyed a day’s holiday there. There are the slides they have had on the sledges, and the laughter and scrambling when one of the sledges somersaulted with its occupants, and the panting and puffing to gain the top for just one more slide.

Picnic Point is situated at the top of the Toowoomba Range, overlooking the Toll Bar Road, with its numerous twists and turns. From the look-out there is a wonderful view of hills and valleys, sometimes basking in the bright sunshine which helps to reveal a track leading to some unvisited waterhole. But sometimes they are covered with mists, and Table Top, with its mantle of whiteness, appears as a stately mountain crowned with purity and honour. The mists come and go in an instant, but in

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Toll Bar Road, Brisbane to Toowoomba, c 1934

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

ATTEMPTED HOLD-UP.

ON TOLL BAR ROAD.

TOOWOOMBA SENSATION.

TOOWOOMBA, Nov. 30. – After barricading the Toll Bar-road at one of its steepest sections a masked man attempted to hold up the driver of a motor-truck last night, but the driver of the truck accelerated and escaped.

According to the police report, Stanley Poore was driving a truck down the Toll Bar-raod about 9.15 p.m. When taking a bend Poore saw a number of saplings and rails lying on the road. As he approached the obstacles he applied the brakes.

A man with a black handkerchied over his face rushed from behind an embankment with a large stone in his hand and shouted that the truck should be stopped. At the same time another man came towards the truck from the other side of the road.

Poore accelerated and drove straight at the man who was standing on the road in front

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Toowoomba Soldiers Memorial Hall, Ruthven Street, Front elevation, 2000

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Soldiers’ Memorial Hall was designed in two sections: A two-storey face and rendered brick building facing Ruthven Street and containing commemorative and formal RSL functions, and a large single storey brick extension facing Herries Street and housing the dance hall and club facilities. The main entrance, through the projecting arcade facing Ruthven Street, leas to the Hall of Memory with its large timber honour rolls.

The Soldiers Memorial Hall was constructed in several stages between 1923 and 1959, as a tribute to soldiers from the district who had served in the First World War. The Hall is a rare example in Queensland of a quite elaborate soldier’s hall, and it is larger than others built during the same period.

All three stages (1923-4, 1930-1, 1957-9) were designed by William Hodgen Jnr, with funds for the project being raised by the Citizen’s Memorial Hall Committee. The first

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