Category: Queensland State Archives’ Photostream About Fortitude Valley

Application by Nicolaus Joseph Kessels to lease lands before survey, 22 July 1878

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Nicolaus Joseph Kessels was born in Holland about 1850. He arrived in Australia in 1867 with his mother and siblings, Willem and Eugenie. He was naturalised in 1876; in the naturalisation document has name has been anglicised to “Nicholas”. In 1878 he applied to lease 1000 acres of land south of Brisbane to survey for a homestead. He was a member of the Yeerongpilly Divisional Board, which became the Shire of Yeerongpilly in 1879. Kessels Road between Salisbury and Upper Mount Gravatt is named after him. He later moved to the Burnett region and was a member of the Degilbo Shire Council. He died in Maryborough in 1926.

Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 5470

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Railway station, Charleville, c 1962

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

From the Queensland Heritage Register.

Charleville Railway Station was established by the Queensland Government in 1888 as part of a rail link to service Western Queensland. Structures of cultural heritage significance at the station include the passenger station, opened in 1957 and the goods shed, the core of which was completed in 1888. These structures reflect the historic importance of Charleville as a western railway station.

In Australia, government fostered the development of railways as a means of developing the country and providing social benefits. It was argued that rail would reduce freight costs and save travel time for passengers. An added incentive for rail development in Queensland was the very poor state of the roads. In wet weather especially, this hampered the transport of freight. Railway development became the province of government because of the doubtful economics of building and operating a rail service for the

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Letter to the Premier from Captain R Cooper, ADC to the Governor, notifying the Premier of the arrival of General D MacArthur, 23 July 1942

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area was moved from Melbourne to Brisbane on on 21 July 1942 and set up at the AMP Building in Queen Street, Brisbane (now called MacArthur Chambers). General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Brisbane two days later.

Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 22378

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