Category: Queensland State Archives’ Photostream About Fortitude Valley

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

East Talgai.

After bounding along by railway from Warwick for a distance of seventeen miles, we debark at a rustic siding known as Clark’s Crossing, the guard having previously admonished that there was a passenger for that point. At this place we are in the immediate vicinity of East Talgai, a name and locality too well known to all breeders of sheep to need any description here.
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Before, however, proceeding with a history of the famous flocks at Talgai, it may not be uninteresting to state that the boundaries of this property extend down to the township of Allora, away to Headington Hill and the Clifton homestead, and back by Mr. Hanmer’s Talgai, &c. It embraces 32,000 acres of purchased land, and not an inch of Crown Land is included. At the time this property was taken up by the present proprietary, some fourteen years ago, it

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

William and Jane White and their two children emigrated from Ireland to Sydney as assisted immigrants in 1840. When he arrived in Australia, William assumed his grandmother’s maiden name as a second christian name, and became known thereafter as William Duckett White. From 1842-44 White taught school in the Mangrove area north of Sydney until accepting an offer in 1845 to manage the Beau Desert run in the Moreton Bay District for his cousin Joseph Phelps Robinson. When Robinson died in 1848, his brother George Robinson and W.D. White took over the lease of Beau Desert, one of the largest runs on the Logan. In 1857, White left Beau Desert under the management of his son Ernest White and William, and with his wife Jane and their daughter Helena moved to Eagle Farm near Brisbane.

Description source: Wikipedia

Image source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 5735

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Brigalow Wheat Harvesting Daily

A heavy storm, yielding approximately 63 points, passed over the Brigalow district about mid-night on Wednesday night.
The rain delayed most harvest operations as several farmers in the district had expected to commence harvesting on Thursday last.
Most of the wheat crops are flat on the ground as a result of the heavy four-inch falls earlier in October.
Some farmers are expecting heavy yields from some of their crops.
Within the next week or so it is expected that harvesting will be in full swing in the Brigalow district. One of the first crops to be harvested has yielded 16 to 16 1/2 bags per acre.
Mosquitoes are proving very troublesome in the Brigalow district, and it is expected that the district will be plagued with them all the summer as all the melon holes are full of water and will provide “excellent” breeding grounds. Insects are

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Homestead.

In nearly every farming district there are to be observed farm homesteads that gladden the eye and the heart, and others that are most depressing to look at (says the “Agricultural Gazette”).
In practically every part of this prolific land, it is not a question of momentary outlay that governs the difference between a comfortable and beautiful little home and a miserably bare one.
It is just a matter of personal taste, and if the old folks will not improve the place in the thousand and one inexpensive ways possible for their own sakes, they certainly should do so for the sake of the little ones.
One may often see a settler in the slack time spending hours and hours chopping a rabbit out of a great log, when the same amount of time and energy spent round the homestead would result in paving

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Brightening the Homestead.

Many farm homesteads might be brightened up wonderfully, by the application of a little paint to the exterior of the buildings. Every farmer ought to learn how to use the paint brush. Then at odd times he can do much home improvement that without this accomplishment would certainly go undone. Paint itself is not so expensive as its application. Occasionally a city painter will break over the trade union regulations when out of a job, and work at prices that farmers can afford to pay. We do not especially blame those who paint for a living for asking high wages. To work continuously in paints, especially of lead, is very unhealthful, but a little painting will not injure anyone. Considering how easily the painters’ trade, at least for common work, may be learned, there is reason in the argument that everybody ought to

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Teutoberg.

A petition has been received by the Colonial Secretary from a number of farmers at Teutoberg, parish of Maleny, Blackall Ranges, praying for relief, their selections having been seriously affected by the heavy rains which destroyed their growing crops. The petitioners represent eight families, or 35 persons in all.
They state that their crops gave promise of good returns, but are now in ruin. The maize crop is not fit for market, being practically wasted. The English and sweet potatoes were so long in the ground that they became saturated with the wet and rotted.
The selectors have struggled along in difficulties since they took up their land four years ago. The March rents are due, and there being no outside work obtaining money sufficient to pay the rents. Crops of maize or of potatoes cannot be expected within eight or ten months.
The selectors request

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

A West Moreton Orchard.

The large view on this page furnishes a notable example of what may be achieved by an industrious settler in Queensland. It represents the property of Mr. F. W. Rebstein, Orange Grove, Mount Sylvia, near Gatton. The number of trees in the orchard is 700, comprising 50 Lisbon lemon, 100 mandarin, and 550 orange trees of various kinds.
Mr. Rebstein has also about twenty other fruit-trees, such as apples, pears, and peaches. Where the gaps appear in the rows about seventy trees have been cut out, having failed to make suitable growth, but in every case the tree removed has been replaced by another, which in a few years will grow up and restore the uniformity of the rows. The orange bug has made great havoc among the trees lately, and it takes a good deal of time and labour to keep the

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Station Life

Station life was hard and made harder by the isolation. The hub of any station was the homestead. Whether or not there was a ‘Missus’ to run the essential backup services for all who lived on the big properties, someone had to be responsible for the feeding, such medical care as could be given, and the provision of a place for the management to operate.

Sometimes these functions would have been performed by the owner’s or manager’s wife, sometimes by paid help. Many station cooks were male, and the boss was often the provider of health and welfare for the station hands.

For many properties the great distance and the transport problems meant that orders had to go in for twelve months. Typical was an order for one station in 1888, which included 2 tons of flour, 1 ton of common salt (meat had to be

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Homestead Gate.

It swings idly on its hinges, the old fashioned gate, the sun and wind have long since scarred its surface and the once snow-white palings are now a sickly grey. It swings to and fro as though mutely protesting against its fate, for far up in the ridge the carpenters are camped – the carpenters who for weeks past have been busy at the new home. The old homestead, with its long rambling verandahs and passages and roof of iron and shingle, has been razed to the ground, and today a grand new structure proudly stands on the grave of the old home.
‘Tis a long stretch of years since the young owner brought his girl-bride to the homestead to face their new life in the big, still bushland. Every evening the bride would come to the gateway and lean on the snow-white railings

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Among the Orchards.
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Profits of Fruit-Growing.
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“The Glen,” Mr. R. Hoggen’s home, is about a mile from the station, and its owner has several orchards on the banks of Accommodation and Black Rock Creeks. Mr. Hoggen made a speciality of cherries, but he finds that they are not a success with him, and he has rooted most of them out. He has tested a large number of varieties of apples and peaches, which he is making his standard crops. He makes a speciality of asparagus, which he grows to great perfection, and with which the Brisbane market is supplied. Alltogether Mr. Hoggen has about 6000 trees, and he is generally looked upon as adviser to the growers in the district. He has erected an irrigation plant, and so is to some extent independent of the dry seasons.
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Description source: The Queenslander, 3 March 1906

Image source: Queensland State Archives,

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