Category: Queensland State Archives’ Photostream About Fortitude Valley

Geraldton Bridge, Innisfail, 2 November 1965

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Geraldton Bridge across the Johnstone River replaced an old ferry crossing. Innisfail was originally Geraldton until 1910, after Thomas Henry FitzGerald who established the sugar industry in the area in 1879. It was renamed Innisfail to avoid confusion with the town of Geraldton in Western Australia.

Queensland State Archives Item ID436313, Photographic material

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Belyando Shire Hall, Cleremont, c 1966

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Shire of Belyando was a local government area of Central Queensland based around Clermont and Moranbah. The Belyando Division was established in 1879 and became the Shire of Belyando in 1903. It merged into the Isaac Region in 2008.

Queensland State Archives Item ID436314, Photographic material

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Roma Street railway station, Brisbane, c 1879

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Brisbane Courier
15 June 1875

Opening of the Railway.

The first train carrying passengers from the Brisbane terminus started at half-past 6 o’clock yesterday morning, and, in spite of the earliness of the hour, a number of persons had assembled on the platform to witness this historical event. The utmost exertions of a large body of men had only sufficed to make the line fit for travelling, without being able to make a really finished job of it, the ballasting being only laid under the sleepers at considerable distances. The motion was, consequently, greater than will hereafter be the case. Work in ballasting was being continued all day yesterday with noticeable results.

The four departures which took place were unattended with any demonstration, except that numbers of well-dressed people, evidently holiday-making on their own account, thronged the platform and skirted, the adjacent parts of the line to see

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Grassy Hill Lighthouse, Cooktown, c 1966

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

From the Queensland Heritage Register.

Grassy Hill lighthouse was erected for the Queensland Department of Harbours and Rivers in 1886 to mark a safe passage to the port of Cooktown, at the mouth of the Endeavour River.

Cooktown was established in October 1873 as the Endeavour River port and administrative centre to the important Palmer River goldfields. Within six months of its establishment the town contained 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; 65 publican’s licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. There was an estimated 3,000 floating population in the town itself, and thousands of men en route to the goldfields. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874, a state school, customs house, court house, post office and several churches were

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Queen Street, Brisbane, 1965

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Queen Street was the hub of Brisbane’s financial district, housing the headquarters of many banks and insurance companies. Visible in this photograph are the now heritage listed National Mutual Life Building, Newspaper House and MacArthur Chambers.

Queensland State Archives Item ID436313, Photographic material

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Standard Combination tram No 1, South Brisbane, 1897

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Standard Combination Car No. 1 was built in 1897, the prototype electric tram using the body of an earlier horse tram. They were popularly known as “matchboxes”. 63 were built between 1879 and 1904, the last being retired in 1952.

Queensland State Archives Item ID436313, Photographic material

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