Category: Queensland State Archives’ Photostream About Fortitude Valley

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Though Stanthorpe was occupied by pastoralists in the early 1840s and farm selectors in the 1860s, it was the mining started by the Pioneer Tin Mining Company in 1872 that put the place on the map.

The building of the railway line through Stanthorpe provided miners with substitute employment during 1881-83, but it was orcharding that provided a sustained economy for the town.

A Catholic priest Jerome Devadi and Robert Hoggan of Lyra, south of Stanthorpe, experimented with fruit varieties and encouraged orcharding. Summer vegetable growing (when it was too hot at lower levels) was also profitable. Pome fruits were extensively grown, but so were stone fruits, grapes and tobacco.

Discharged servicemen were also settled on orchard blocks west of Stanthorpe, and villages taking their names from battlefields of the Western Front, such as Pozieres, Passchendale and Bapaume, were created.

A branch line passing through them was opened in

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Great Barrier Reef lies along the east coast of Queensland, from the Gulf of Papua to Lady Elliot Island, a coral cay 100 km north-east of Bundaberg. The Barrier Reef is a World Heritage Area (1981) It includes about 2900 unconnected coral reefs, 300 reef islands or sand cays, of which nearly one-third are vegetated. There are also outlying continental islands such as in the Whitsunday and Lindeman groups. Present-day reefs are about 8500 years old. They sit above layers of reef and alluvium dating back at least 2 million years.

Lindeman Island is about 20 sq km and was occupied for livestock grazing in 1906. A homestead and woolshed were refurbished for tourist accommodation in 1923, and grass-hut bungalows were added. Medium-rise apartments brought accommodation to about 300 guests (1990).

Description source: Queensland Places

Image source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 906

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

“Beautiful Lindeman.”

A recent visitor to Lindeman Island and its adjacent attractive spots summed up the glories and charms of this enchanting group of islands by exclaiming, “Beautiful Lindeman.” Its delightful hills and valleys, forest and fern-clad slopes, set as it were within a charmed circle of golden sands, were described as something to be seen to be realised. “Magnetic Island is beautiful and most attractive,” added the visitor,” but then Lindeman is so vast in comparison. Flocks of sheep and goats roam almost unnoticed over its wide stretches of heavily-grassed country. One can walk for miles and miles along peaceful shores, or climb the rugged heights where huge rocks overhang the silent glades and beaches below. Even these giant boulders are covered with maidenhair gowing in riotous profusion. But who could describe the view from one of these observation posts? It reminds me of the

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Artwork by George Coates

The yellowfin tuna is one of the open ocean’s fastest, strongest predators and an important fishery species everywhere that it lives. Reaching weights of at least 190 kg and lengths of nearly 2 m, the yellowfin tuna is a large species that will eat just about anything that it can swallow (typically whole). Like many open ocean bony fishes, yellwofin tunas start out as extremely tiny larvae, no more thatn a few millimeters long and weighing only a few hundredths of a gram. Within two years, individuals reach lengths of one meter and are sexually mature.

The yellowfin tuna is a highly prized food fish and is fished heavily throughout its range. Generally, scientists believe that these fisheries are managed fairly well, and the species is not considered overfished. However, there are some populations that are fished more heavily than others, and it

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Old Homestead.

Above it dark ranges are looming
Forbidding, and gaunt in the moonlight.
In the valleys the night-wind is crooning,
Awakening the voices of night.

The stars are like eyes that are seeing
The slow ruin the years will bring;
The hopes grown old are now fleeing,
Eyes once bright are now dim.

The walls that echoed with laughter
Hear only the hoot of an owl;
And the creak of a rotting rafter,
Or a far-off dingo’s howl.

The gardens were masses of roses
And sweet with the scent of the flower;
A tumble-down fence now encloses
The tall, rank grass grown sour.

And where have the folk all vanished
Who lived in this lonely home?
Why have they all been banished
And driven the world to roam?

The Drought King could tell you the reason
And flood played its part as well,
So the banks had little to seize on
But the land, and the old home to sell.

A neighbour bought runs and the ranges,
And the

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The period 1884-1915 was one of mixed fortunes: resumption of stations for agricultural subdivision under the 1884 Land Act, sinking of artesian water bores following the 184-86 drought, rabbit plagues in the late 1880s, severe economic Depression of the 1890s, tick fever and the great drought (1894-1902), and shearer’s strikes in 1891 and 1894. Sheep numbers rose to nearly 22 million in 1892 – with three stations – Wellshot, Bowen Downs and Milo shearing one million between them. But in the 1900s sheep numbers stabilised at between 15 and 20 million and cattle rose to nearly four million.

From 1903 the problems of lack of local timber were overcome by settlers purchasing prefabricated timber houses such as Campbell’s Redicut Homes which had catalogue names such as ‘The Longreach’, ‘The Hughenden’ and ‘The Mitchell’, all with wide verandahs and overhanging roofs and the latter two with detached

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Deserted Homestead.

This story was sent by Grace Merchant, of 98 Bar Beach Avenue, Newcastle, N.S.W.:-
It was a queer looking place, situated in one of the lonely parts of Northern Queensland, and was said to have been a homestead, in which an old man and his wife lived. They had closed it up quite suddenly one day and went away, unseen by the inquisitive people of the neighbouring farms, and that’s why they all said it was haunted.
Around the homestead frail looking sheds and stables stood. Once, these had been used for horses, but now the mice happily nibbled at the corn cobs that lay strewn about the floor, and birds built their nests under the roof.
When the wind blew it added to the people’s fears for it made moaning sounds, and rattled the chains in the stables, and startled the curlews, who cried out

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Tobacco Kiln

In the early 1930s the tobacco industry expanded in North Queensland following government initiatives to combat growing unemployment created by world wide economic depression, and thereby boosting local economies.

One of the major coasts was the construction of a curing barn, or barns, depending on the size of the farm. Local tobacco kilns were essential as it was imperative that tobacco leaf be cured immediately after harvesting, and a number of kilns appeared in the Hervey’s Range and Woodstock areas. Kiln walls had to be insulated and farmers used different materials, according to their means and the availability of local resources. Different constructions in the Townsville areaa included brick, two layers of corrugated iron filled with sand, bush timber coated with cement plaster, home-made concrete brick, reinforced concrete, and sun-dried blocks of clay and chopped grass.

The curing process was crucial, and flue curing was the

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Designing The Country Homestead

An excellent suggestion is being discussed in building circles that Brisbane should have an annual home building exhibition, where the trends in domestic architecture could be brought under public notice.
If such an exhibition is arranged, prominence should be given to a suitable, moderately priced home for country districts.
Country requirements differ so vastly from those of the city that a separate section should definitely be provided, particularly when it is realised that approximately one-half of Queensland’s population is in the country.
It is hoped that the idea of a modern homes exhibition will be adopted and that in any such program the country homestead will receive its due share of attention.

Description source: Queensland Country Life, 5 October 1939

Image source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 4395

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Australian Homestead

She certainly does not miss the money. She and Yehudi can, it is true, earn around £2000 for one concert. But tall, handsome Lindsay Nicholas is not only a farmer, but the son of a proprietary medicine king and a near-millionaire. From this is must not be imagined that Hephzibah has retired to a life of luxury and leisure.
The Nicolas’ big, one-storey, red-roofed homestead has no servants. Sons Kronrad (11) and Marston (seven next month) make their own beds. Husband Lindsay operates the vacuum cleaner. Hephzibah does a bit of everything. Her favourite chores – cooking and making preserves.
She is devoted to her children; has ideas about education (“I’m an interfering member of the parents’ committee – I insist on a say in how my sons are taught and fed”) ; ideas about diet (“we have plenty of vegetable juice, plenty of meat and

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