Category: Queensland State Archives’ Photostream About Fortitude Valley

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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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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Enoggera, Brisbane water supply. No 369, c.1894

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

STATE FOREST AT ENOGGERA

No Pollution Of Water Supply

The City Council proposes to agree to the request of the Queensland Forest Service to gazette the Enoggera water reserve as a State forest.

Departmental officers have advised the Lord Mayor (Alderman Jones) that no disabilities would result from the proposal, as, whatever forestry operations were carried out, steps would be taken to ensure that there would be no pollution of the water supply. The council will retain its rights over the reserve.

The Forest Service has now notified the council that it is proposed to gazette the area shortly as a State forest, with the exception of the lake and a fringe of country two chains wide surrounding it, which will be retained as a water reserve.

The water and sewerage committee decided on Saturday to recommend that the area round the water reserve should be increased from two to

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Toowoomba at the time of the opening of the railway from Ipswich, c1865

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Rail in Queensland

Rail transport has been very important to the economic development of Queensland.

The first section of railway opened between Ipswich and Bigge’s Camp on 31 July 1865. A railway gauge of 3 feet 6 inches was chosen. This was one of the earliest uses of such a narrow gauge for a public railway. It was cheaper to build and the government had little financial resources.

The railways in Queensland stretched from coastal ports inland. This allowed the transport of farming produce for export. These goods were important for our economy. In 1865 it took a dray load of wool about seven days to travel from Toowoomba to Ipswich. When the railway reached Toowoomba in 1867 it reduced the same journey to only five hours.

Queensland State Archives Image ID 3387

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