Category: Queensland State Archives’ Photostream About Fortitude Valley

Looking south along Queen Street, Brisbane, c 1880

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Taken from The Telegraph, Friday 24 September 1880:

GORED BY A BULLOCK.

A remarkable accident of a serious nature occurred in Queen-street yesterday afternoon. Mr. Hutchinson, an operator at Matthewson’s photographic gallery, was crossing Queen-street, when he passed close to the head pair of a team of bullocks standing, we understand, quite unattended in from of Messrs. Tait and Co.’s store ; as Mr. Hutchinson was in the act of passing the near side leading bullock, the off side leader charged him, and the animal’s horn entered the fleshy part of the left arm, which was ripped open down to the elbow joint, and nearly passing completely through the arm.

The bullock then turned and tossed the injured man over his back, and carrying him along some feet, with the horn continuing to tear his flesh badly. Hutchinson had sufficient presence of mind to lay his other hand

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Seaforth Island from Lindeman Island, Whitsunday Passage, c 1931

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Taken from the Daily Mercury, Saturday 26 October 1935:

SEAFORTH

(Contributed).
What’s in a name? Yet one must wonder why Seafoth was so called. Was it that we Australians, afraid of being thought sentimentalists, just tack on the first mundane name that comes to our minds; or was there hidden behind it the thought of future generations going forth to find the sea – in search of that perfect tonic which only the sea can give? Be that as it may, to the uninitiated the name means nothing; to the initiated, it matters not at all.

We residents of Mackay, so well served with beautiful beaches, so satiated with the beauty of our own immediate surroundings, seem to give but little thought to the glorious vista which lies just a little further along the road. Not the little extra petrol, nor the little extra time spent in getting there,

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Main Street, Tully, c 1938

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Taken from Cairns Post, Tuesday 6 September 1932:

TULLY COLLISION.

LOCO. AND TRUCK.

IN MAIN STREET.

TULLY, September 5.
Mr. John Maher, cane farmer, of Euramo, and Mr. D. Jorgenson, one of the principals of Scholss and Co., general merchants, Tully, had a miraculous escape from seroius injury when a sugar mill loco crashed into a motor truck in which they were riding, in the main street early this morning.

“DID NOT OBSERVE.”

Jorgenson did not observe the oncoming loco until the vehicle was just astride the line. The impact carried the truck within a few yards of the catte grid before the engine was brought to a standstill. Jorgenson was taken to hospital by the ambulance, having sustained facial lacerations and injuries to the left hand. Maher, who was nearest the engine, escaped with minor injuries.

“VERY WARM.”

This is the fourth accident of a similar nature, and the danger of the tramline

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Help by Rail

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

A Rail Ambulance is a vehicle used for medical transportation services on railway lines. The first rail ambulance in Queensland, Australia was introduced in 1918, with the last withdrawn from service around 1990. It was usually a specially equipped petrol engined rail inspection trolley, funded by a local community, with a railway employee volunteering to drive it when necessary.

Queensland is a vast, relatively unpopulated area, where providing services to remote communities in a cost effective way has been a continual challenge. Railways were built from 1865, and in many areas provided the major form of transport until a significant road improvement program was commenced by the Queensland government from the 1960s.

It was in this context that the mining community of Blair Athol introduced the first rail ambulance in 1918, in order to enable injured people to be transported to the nearest hospital at Clermont.

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The Prosperine Ambulance Centre

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The town name Proserpine derives from the Proserpine River, whose name was derived from the legend of the Greek goddess Persephone (whose Latin name is Proserpine) It is sometimes nicknamed “ProsVegas” (although there are no casinos in the town) or abbreviated to “Prossy” by locals. Recently it is argued that the name was taken from one of the original cattle stations in the area.

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The ambulance centre at Toogoolawah

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Toogoolawah is derived from the Aboriginal words “dhoo” (a generic term for tree) and “goo/lawa”, meaning “crescent shaped” or “bent like a crescent moon”. The name probably referred to a tree with a deformed trunk which stood on the site in Bulimba, rather than to the supposed shape outlined by the Brisbane River as it rounds Bulimba Point, as has been alleged.

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