The Brisbane General Cemetery’s picturesque setting maintains the visual allusion of the Victorian concept of a mortuary park on the outskirts of the city. After a sizable portion of land was set aside for cemetery purposes at Toowong in 1861, the appropriateness of the site at Toowong for the purpose of a General Cemetery was an issue contested for the next two decades. It’s isolation and doubts about the suitability of its site, with a lack of access and public transport, fuelled dissent and debate while the public continued to use the cheaper, more accessible familial grounds at Paddington.
The State government passed the Cemetery Act in 1866 providing the means to establish general cemeteries under the control of government appointed trustees. In 1868, a further portion of Crown land, 53 acres in area, north of the cemetery reserve was added to fulfil of the Trustee’s requirement for the entire cemetery to be surrounded with public roads. The reserve was gazetted and the Cemetery Trust established in October 1870. The grounds at the Cemetery were laid out by the prominent surveyor, George Phillips and the Cemetery was officially opened on 5 July 1875.
The first burial here was that of Colonel Samuel Wensley Blackall (1 May 1809-2 January 1871), an Irish soldier and politician who served as Queensland’s second Governor. He served from 14 August 1868 until he died while in office. As his health was declining, in 1870, he selected the highest burial site at the new Toowong Cemetery. Shortly after, he died in office on 2 January 1871. His memorial is the largest and most prominent in the cemetery with commanding views of the city and surrounds.
Between Governor Blackall’s burial and the official opening of the Cemetery, there were six burials. The next interment was Ann Hill, wife of Walter Hill, superintendent of the Botanical Gardens on 2 November 1871. Thomas and Martha McCulloch were buried in November 1873, Teresa Maria Love on 16 March 1875 and Florence and Ethel Gordon on 4 July 1875.
The distinctive Cemetery gates are an example of the Victorian concept of a mortuary park and were designed by F.D.G. Stanley, who later resided in Church (now Jephson) Street, Toowong. The gates were erected in 1873-74.
Raymond Dart (1893- 1988) was an anthropologist and palaeontologist who realized that a fossilized skull he was examining in 1924 was the earliest example of primordial bipedal man ever found to date, thus proving beyond doubt that human ancestors evolved out of Africa. Dart named the species Australopithecus africanus, the ‘southern ape from Africa’.
Robert Broom (a Scottish doctor who became a professional palaeontologist in 1933 at 67, and who was a long-time supporter of Dart) paid this tribute to Dart:
Raymond A. Dart’s discovery and analysis in 1924 was one of the most important in world history.
Early Years
Raymond Dart was born in Queensland, Australia in the inner western suburb of Brisbane on 4 February 1893. He almost didn’t make it as he, his mother, and her midwife had to be rowed to safety after he was born from the family grocery store in Sylvan Road, Toowong during one the Brisbane River floods of that year. He was the fifth born of nine children of Samuel Dart, a Queensland-born storekeeper, and his wife Eliza Ann, née Brimblecombe, who was born in New South Wales. He had seven brothers and a sister.
Despite being born in Toowong, Dart was raised mainly on a dairy farm near Laidley. His early education was at Toowong State School, which was then located in Aston Street, Toowong. He also attended Blenheim State and Ipswich Grammar schools. He later attended newly established The University of Queensland where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science on 17 April 1914 and a Master of Science, First Class Honours (in Biology), 10 May 1916. He later spent four years at the University of Sydney, studying medicine. All these qualifications were achieved before his 25th birthday.
After graduating, Dart left Australia and served in the medical corps as a captain and medic in the Australian Army in England and France during the last year of World War I. In 1920 Dart was appointed as a senior demonstrator at the University College, London at the direction of Grafton Elliot Smith. A famed anatomist and anthropologist, Smith was regarded as THE eminent anatomist in Britain. Interestingly, Grafton Elliot Smith, who was also a fellow Australian, had moved from Grafton (as in his name), New South Wales, to take up a position in London.
Dart then travelled to Washington University, St Louis, Missouri on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and then returned to his position at the University College, London,
In 1922, Dart left Britain to take up the position of Chair of Anatomy at South Africa’s newly established University of Witwatersrand’s fledgling Faculty of Medicine (sometimes called ‘Wit’s’ University). He was reluctant to do so, but agreed after encouragement from Elliot Smith and Scottish anatomist and anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith FRS, who was professor of physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain from 1918 to 1923 at the time. Dart was just 31 years of age.
Archival photograph of Raymond Dart holding the Taung skull [Courtesy of WITS University Archives]
Taung Child
In 1924, one of Raymond’s students brought him some quarry rubble containing a skull. After Dart painstakingly cleared away non-essential debris around the skull, he declared : In my opinion it is not a young chimpanzee, as many scientists have suggested. I believe it is a crossover between an ape, and a human, possibly a human ancestor.
Raymond named his skull the ‘Taung Child’ after where it was discovered. Dart then presented his findings to the scientific journal Nature, who published his report on 7 February 1925.
Eventually, the skull turned out to be the earliest example of primordial, bipedal man ever found. It also proved beyond doubt that human ancestors evolved out of Africa.
Back in 1925 Raymond claimed that this genus of hominid would have had a posture and teeth similar to modern humans. It also had a small ape-sized brain. Most importantly, Dart, being an anatomist, knew that the position where the vertebrae entered the skull meant it was bipedal.
Dart’s conclusions were met with hostility from other many anthropologists. It must have been disappointing for Raymond to be challenged by Grafton Elliot Smith, his own professor and mentor, who stated, ‘The Taung skull was more likely to have been a chimpanzee, not a human ancestor’. After a number of years, a disenchanted Raymond gave up searching for fossils, and went back to teaching.
Piltdown Man
Dart had accepted the science of the time, that the earliest human ancestor was indicated by the discovery of Piltdown Man’s skull. It was found in 1912 by amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson in Pleistocene gravel beds near the town of Piltdown in Sussex, Britain, and was regarded as the earliest known record of a pre-human fossil. This proved that human ancestors evolved out of Europe. Grafton Elliot Smith, one of the anthropologists that Dart had observed and admired while working in London, was later called to the town of Piltdown to help reconstruct pieces of the skull that had been found there.
The Piltdown Man was later exposed to have been a hoax, one of the biggest frauds in anthropological science history. The general public were horrified to find out that the hoax had taken place, and even more concerning, that it took 31 years for the deception to be discovered. Today, after much investigation, the fraudster has not been named.
After witnessing the Dart experience following the discovery of the ‘Taung Child’, Robert Broom, a doctor and anthropologist, became interested in the search for human ancestors. He explored dolomite caves in South Africa, particularly Sterkfontein Cave (now part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site). Twelve years later, while continuing his exploratory digs, Robert Broom, found an adult female skull of the ‘Taung Child’s’ genus among other fossils in 1936.
Robert Broom’s discoveries of further Australopithecines (as well as Wilfrid Le Gros Clark’s support) eventually vindicated Dart, so much so that in 1947, Sir Arthur Keith, who had publicly disputed Raymond’s claims, in 1947 made the statement: ‘…I was wrong and Raymond Dart was right!’
Dart, who recalled that back in 1871 Charles Darwin had stated, ‘It was more probable than not, human ancestors evolved out of the African continent’, had the historical sense to remind the world of Darwin’s words. Thus Raymond Dart’s second distinction after realising the significance of the ‘Taung Child’, was that he had turned Darwin’s ‘Probable’ into a ‘Definite!’
Another major contribution by Dart was that he established Witwatersrand University as the epicentre of human evolution science, research and achievement. The Institute for the Study of Mankind in Africa was founded in his honour.
Others who have followed in his footsteps have been Professor Phillip V. Tobias, Dart’s long-time collaborator, successor and biographer. Tobias died in 2012 aged 86. Currently, Professor Lee Berger is a major contributor to ‘Wit’s’ research. In 2013, he and his large team discovered the biggest primitive hominin assemblage in history. Another is Professor Ron Clark, the man who found an almost complete skeleton of a 3.67 million year old human ancestor. It was named ‘Littlefoot’. Berger and Clark, as well as many others, are continuing the tradition of Raymond A. Dart’s work.
Raymond A. Dart died in South Africa on 22 November 1988, aged 95. This year 2018 commemorates 30 years since his passing.
Peter McNally, the author of this article, was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1940. In 1975, Peter, his wife Judy, and their three sons moved to Queensland and over the past 25 years have lived in Brisbane, within 15 kilometres of where Raymond was born.
In recent years Peter has become very interested in researching the evolution of the Earth, and in particular, the evolutionary history of Australia, and human evolution within Australia. Peter further explains: ‘Australian’s evolutionary history goes back approximately 3.4 billion years ago to the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It’s one of the earliest places on earth where microscopic, biological, organism evidence has been discovered, making it one of the earliest places on earth, where life began.’
Thank you to Peter for sharing his research with the Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., and for giving permission for his article to be published.
Toowong and its neighbouring suburbs feature many places of historical interest.
Some places are well-known to the wider community and are regarded as being iconic to the area. These include buildings such the two hotels, Regatta and Royal Exchange; churches such as St Thomas’s Anglican Church and St Ignatius Catholic Church; residences such as Warrawee, Moorlands, Milton House and Dovercourt; and businesses such as the Castlemaine XXXX Brewery and Peerless Dry Cleaners.
Significant places in Toowong aren’t necessarily always buildings and houses. The divided road in High Street, now officially known as Patterson’s Folly, is in this category, as is the Crow’s Ash Tree on the corner of Sylvan Road and Milton Road.
There are others places less well known and these are hidden gems. These include Toby’s the Dog Postman’s Memorial and the Clock Tower in front of Toowong Village.
Other places can be described as localities or vicinities. In times past locals referred to the business area of Toowong as ‘The Village’—hence the origin of the name for the shopping centre now located in Sherwood Road. Other examples are Kayes Rocks and the bus turnaround in front of Toowong Village.
Yet other places have disappeared from the streetscape—some a long time ago and others more recently. These places may have disappeared but they still remain in the memory of those who still live here and also of those who used to live in the area. Sir Robert Philp’s former residence ‘Mallow’ is in this category—long gone due to fire, but still fondly remembered. Another is the Brisbane Cash and Carry (BCC), later bought out by Woolworths. Now Woolworths is also gone!
And who would forget Patterson’s Sawmill? Gone now for many, many years but still recalled nostalgically.
This article is the first segment of a series of articles about places of historical interest. Stay tuned as more articles will be added at a later date.
25/4/2018
Part 1
Badger’s house: Arlington; now known as Endrim
Address: 28 Woodstock Road, Toowong
Arlington was built in 1905 for American Joseph Stillman Badger. Badger, the manager of the Brisbane Tramways Company, had been sent to Brisbane in 1896 as its chief engineer by the General Electric Company to oversee the electrification of Brisbane’s horse-drawn tram network, but left GE in 1897. A proud American, Badger named the house Arlington in honour of the United States National Cemetery.
Badger’s house Arlington, Toowong Brisbane
The property was financed by the Brisbane Tramways Company, possibly as part of a salary package. Badger appears to have had a free hand in the design as the architecture has an American flavor. Rumours that the house was rumoured used steel tramway tracks as bearers has subsequently verified.
Badger moved to Arlington when work commenced upon the extension of the tramline from the gates of Brisbane General Cemetery, down Dean Street, and into Woodstock Road to terminate at the (Toowong) Tram Terminus situated just near his front gate. Badger used a gate built into his side fence to walk down concrete stairs built into the steep slope of the ridge to access the tram stop near to his residence where his private tram collected him to go into work.
Due to both his role in the electrification and extension of the Brisbane tramway network and his hardline opposition to unionism and the role he played in the lead up to the General Strike of January 1912, the residence has ever since been associated with his name. However, people refer to as Endrim, the name the property was later called, and not as Arlington.
References:
Leigh Chamberlain and Lindy Salter, Toowong; A tram ride from the past, Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., 2018, p.124.
David Burke, One American too many. Boss Badger and the Brisbane Trams, Queensland Museum, 2012.
Brisbane Boys’ College Rowing Shed
Address: Opposite the Regatta Hotel, Coronation Drive, Toowong
The Brisbane Boys College (BBC) boatshed was built on the river bank opposite the Regatta Hotel. After BBC relocated to Toowong from Clayfield in 1931, the school used the facilities of the Toowong Rowing Club. An application to build a new shed for the school was submitted to the Brisbane City Council (BCC). In response, the BCC closed off a public road located at the proposed site which allowed the application to proceed. Finance was raised through debentures offered to the Old Boys, from the college sports fund, and from the sale of the school’s former Breakfast Creek rowing shed. The use of Relief Labour during the depression years allowed the new rowing shed to be ready for use in September, 1933. After the 1974 flood in which the rowing sheds were destroyed the Toowong Rowing Club and the BBC rowing sheds were reconstructed next to The University of Queensland at St Lucia. The original ramps used to launch the shells at Toowong are still visible. GPS schools regattas were held on the Brisbane River up until 1973. After the 1974 flood a variety of venues have been used.
Brisbane Boy College Rowers Carry Scull from Boathouse at Toowong, Brisbane, 1947 . Brisbane John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
Reference:
Noel Quirke, Gentleman of Honour: A History of Brisbane Boys College 1902-2002, Brisbane Boys College, 2001.
Brisbane Cash and Carry, Toowong
Address: High Street, Toowong
The arrival of Brisbane Cash and Carry in 1923 changed the nature of how ordinary Australians did their weekly grocery shop and was the first Australian self-service grocery store. Claude Fraser and his wife, Gladys, travelled to America to investigate the advent of self service grocery stores. Customers embraced the concept.
On the 7th November, 1953, BCC Store Pty Ltd purchased a large block of land in High Street, Toowong, where a new branch of BCC was opened. William Land, butchers of Toowong provided meat to BCC. Kevin Cocks, son of Leslie Cocks whose family had operated Cocks grocery store across the road in Sherwood Road, attributes the closure of the 2-generation Cocks family-run business to the arrival of BCC in the Toowong shopping precinct. By 1965 the Cocks Family business had closed. BCC continued to trade here until early 1967. Later that year new owners, Guardian Assurance Co, Ltd. leased the property to Woolworths (Queensland Ltd) for 40 years. Woolworths continued to trade here despite changes in land ownership until January 2017.
The Castlemaine or Milton Brewery was established at Milton Brisbane in 1878 by Fitzgerald Quinlan and Co. The brothers Nicholas and Edward Fitzgerald had established brewing interests at Castlemaine in Victoria and then in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Newcastle. In Brisbane Quinlan Gray and Co had taken over interests of the Milton Distillery that was established on the site at Milton in 1870. The first brew by the new Milton Brewery was called Castlemaine XXX Sparkling Ale and was made to the same formula as the beer brewed by Castlemaine Brewery in Victoria.
Since medieval times when brewing was confined mainly to monasteries X, the sign of the cross, was a standard symbol of purity for alcoholic beverages. The number of X’s represented the strength of the beer. It was not until the early 1890s that the first trademark showing the 4Xs was applied for by the limited liability company Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan Gray and Co.
Castlemaine Brewery at Milton, Brisbane, 1879. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
References:
History of the Castlemaine Perkins Brewery, 1877-1993, compiled by the Public Affairs Department, Castlemaine Perkins Limited Public Affairs Department, Milton, Qld, 1993.
Melva A Welch, Bergin Beauty. John Delaney Bergin Family, 2014, p.36.
Cook Terrace
Address: Corner of Park Road and 249 Coronation Drive, Milton.
JB Cook, who was a builder, applied to the Toowong Shire Council to build an hotel on the corner of Cribb Street and The River Road in 1887, but the Council rejected the proposal as it felt it was not necessary. There were two other hotels in the district. J B Cook then built Cook Terrace as his own residence after the application was rejected. Architects of the building were Taylor & Richer of 169 Queen Street, Brisbane. By 1922 Cook Terrace were also known as the Home Flats. Mr and Mrs Frederick and Ethel Laugher, brother and sister-in-law of the Misses Laugher after whom Laugher Park was named, leased a terrace house here c.1922-1929. By the early 1970s Cook Terrace had ceased to be a residential building and instead became commercial premises, which included restaurants. The property is a landmark in the district and is now heritage-listed.
Subsidence along the River Road (Coronation Drive) after 1893 floods with Cook Terrace in background. 1893. Brisbane John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
References:
RHSQ Queensland History Journal, May 14 Vol 22, No.5, p396-7.
Leigh Chamberlain, The Laugher sisters of Toowong and their park, Toowong and District Historical Society, 2011.
Cross River Ferry
Address: across from the Regatta Hotel, Coronation Drive, Toowong
The ferries have existed since convict days and have been a vital transport facility for Brisbane. The first ferry in the district ran from Park Road Milton to South Brisbane commencing around 1914, and ceased in the 1940s. Percival Patrick Hanlon, the lessee, commenced the new Toowong–Hill End ferry service which operated from near the Regatta Hotel to Ferry Road, West End in 1922. It ran until1953. He first commenced operation using a row boat and then graduated to motor boats. An elderly Toowong resident recalls enjoying a ride across the river on the ferry for one penny. Various fares applied but “elephants were free’’. When Mr Hanlon became ill his wife Elizabeth Hanlon, nee Dale, obtained her Master’s license and ran the ferry during her husband’s illness but in 1953 Mr Hanlon was forced to retire from work. This ferry service continued until January 1974 when the Australia Day floods destroyed the jetty and pontoon.
Ferry – Toowong 1920’s. Brisbane City Council (1920).
References:
John, Pearn, Auchenflower. The suburb and the name, 1997.
Percy Hanlon, ‘Oh-ver’: History of Brisbane Cross River Ferries, 2000.
Percy Hanlon, ‘Memories of a Ferryman’s son’. p124 in Leigh Chamberlain and Lindy: Salter, Toowong. A tram ride from the past: Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., 2008
Hi TDHS members, It’s webmaster Genean here. Currently I am working in conjunction with a great team to develop a better web experience for you all. Please bear with us whilst we make some changes and upload great new information for our wonderful society.
I found this great image of our first footsteps west… “Milton is where the shire begins”
http://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.png00TDHShttp://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.pngTDHS2017-09-01 15:04:342017-09-01 15:12:33We’re Building a Better TDHS Experience
The history of local government in the Toowong area 1880-1925
The story of Toowong’s municipal governance is part of a wider story which dates back to 1859 when Queensland separated from New South Wales as a colony in its own right in 1859.
The colony inherited New South Wales’s local government legislation, the Municipalities Act 1858, which allowed the creation of a municipality with its own elected council to manage local affairs, upon the petition of householders in the area.
Not many local areas took up the opportunity to establish local municipal bodies, and by 1878, only eighteen towns had incorporated in this way. Therefore, the Local Government Act 1878, based on Victorian legislation enacted four years earlier, was passed with the aim of allowing more diverse forms of local government. Each board had a number of councilors and a chairman who was appointed from amongst their number.
The Toowong Division was established on 11 November 1879 under the Divisional Boards Act 1879 with a population of 1789.
In May 1880, the more populated part of Toowong Division was proclaimed the Shire of Toowong, while the remaining part of the Toowong Division was renamed as the Indooroopilly Division.
In 1903, the Toowong Shire became the Town of Toowong. Over its period of tenure (1903-25) the Toowong Town Council continued to administer local governance to Toowong, Auchenflower, Milton and parts of Mt Coot-tha.
In 1925 the Town of Toowong was one of many local municipal authorities that amalgamated to form the Greater Brisbane Council. The City of Brisbane Act 1924 received assent from the Governor on 30 October 1924, thereupon, on 1 October 1925, 20 local government areas of various sizes were abolished and merged into the new city.
Today, Toowong, Auchenflower, Milton and Mt Coot-tha are described as suburbs of Brisbane.
Thanks to Melba Welch OAM for providing the research that this article is based.
https://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/High-street-and-sherwood-road-Toowong-Brisbane-c1890-TDHS.jpg8861500TDHShttp://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.pngTDHS2017-05-24 21:34:422021-11-20 21:37:08History of the Toowong Shire
Ed Faux has provided the following memories about the Faux family residence, which was located at 57 Dunmore Terrace, Auchenflower.
My father, Eric Faux, purchased the home from a friend of his by the name of Arthur Biggs, (which would have been about 1950-51), who ran a printing company located in the city of Brisbane.
Arthur Biggs had two children, Bruce and Nerada. Bruce was to become Dr Bruce Biggs, who partnered two other doctors in a medical practice at the ‘Fiveways’, Gailey Road, Taringa. This would have been in the mid-1950s. In later years (in the 1970s) they expanded their business to include a small medical practice at the shopping centre in Hawken Drive, St Lucia.
Bruce was also at some time president of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Medical Association.
When the eldest three of Eric’s family of five children had left home, he divided the house into two individual areas and rented the southern side of the house to Mrs Negus and her son George, who later became a well-known journalist and TV commentator.
When the house was divided into two sections, my father had the external walls of the house covered in “Faux Brick”
At that time you could sit on the veranda and watch the sailing or rowing races on the Brisbane River below and looking to the northwest you could see the Milton Tennis Courts. There were no high-rise buildings in the area.
Thank you to Ed Faux for providing these memories of his childhood home, and to his sister Shirley for providing the photo. Shirley’s husband Howard Foley assisted by preparing the print for publication.
http://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.png00TDHShttp://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.pngTDHS2016-09-08 14:56:292018-03-25 07:52:08Fond Memories of our family home
William and Margaret Winterford | Regatta Hotel, Toowong (1882–1897)
William Winterford (1834-1919) was the second son of James and Elizabeth (nèe Gillet) Winterford, Publicans of Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, England. William was christened “Levi” in All Saints Church, Shepreth, on 1st June 1834.
William came to Australia in 1855 on the ship Ballarat arriving at Port Phillip Bay. Records indicate that William paid £18/2/6 as the fare. It would appear that at that time he had no particular trade or calling as he was listed simply as a Gentleman.
William followed his brother John and sister Eliza Gillet Edds who came to Australia as assisted immigrant’s on the Thetis in 1849. William and John are believed to have had a Bullock dray business along the east coast of Australia and we know they were both in Rockhampton in 1863. It may be that John and William were attracted to the area by the Canoona Gold Rush of 1858.
William married Margaret Hannah in Rockhampton in 1863. Margaret was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 11/01/1844. William’s profession was listed on his marriage certificate as ‘Bushman’. The newly married couple headed south to the Logan River area which had been opened up for settlement in 1824 and where cotton was now being grown.
It is apparent that John Winterford went his own way prospecting and was to drown alone in a flooded creek near Nockatunga Station in 1882.
William and Margaret Winterford lived and worked in the Logan River area until 1870, when they moved onto their own selection at Pimpama. During their years at Logan River, they started a considerable family.
Arthur James was born on The Albion Cotton Company’s Plantation, Logan River on 8th May 1865
Elizabeth Wilhelmina was born on 14th March 1867 at Logan River
Mary Ann was born at Gympie on 13th December 1868 and
Walter John was born at Logan River 11th August 1870.
The family of six took up residence on Block 173 at Pimpama, where in June 1870 William had also selected the adjoining block No.256. The Homestead block, No.173, was 80 acres of first class agricultural land, while the adjoining block 256, consisted of 188 acres overall and made up of 80 acres of agricultural land and 108 acres of second class pastoral land. Record has it that William improved his Homestead block 173 with the construction of a 4 roomed bark house with a bark roof, also a large slab building containing a barn, a cart house and a store, with a roof of bark. There was also a bark hut for workmen. Eleven acres were cleared and fenced with a sapling fence. The crops planted were sugarcane and maize. He also had a few cattle on the property.
On the second block, 15 acres was cleared with10 acres under cotton and the other 5 acres planted with sugarcane. On this block he constructed 30 chains of sapling fencing.
During this period in Pimpama the Winterford’s managed to increase their family with another four children being born. On 25 May 1872, a son, William Henry was born, and on 19 October 1873, another son, Alfred Edwin, arrived. The next arrival was a girl, Alice Louisa, who was born at Pimpama on 12 April 1875.
Another daughter, Beatrice Selina was born 8th December 1876 and in 1878, yet another daughter, Florence Emily, was born on 23 August at ‘The Valley’. It is assumed that the reference is to Fortitude Valley in Brisbane.
William Winterford obtained a Retail Spirit Dealers License in December 1879 for the Beenleigh area and operated his first liquor license at the Ferry Hotel (built in 1871) at Yatala on the Albert River.
William also acquired the Wharf Street Brisbane premises in 1879 which accommodated the family and operated as Public House.
Another addition to the family, Maggie Hannah was born at Yatala on 5 October 1882.
During this period William purchased the original Regatta Hotel on the Brisbane River at Sylvan Road in Toowong.
In 1886 William had great plans for his old wooden hotel. It was removed from the site to make way for a completely new development. He commissioned the architect Richard Gailey to design a much larger building to blend with its position on the bank of the Brisbane River. George Gazzard carried out the construction at a cost of £4,800. The finished product was outstanding in every respect. The new Regatta Hotel was officially opened in 1887 and enjoyed good trading for 10 years in spite of the big flood of 1893 when the Brisbane River broke its banks.
Proposed new Regatta Hotel, drawn 1887
Another daughter, Clara Isabella was born in Brisbane on 29 May 1884. Unfortunately Clara died three months later on 28 August.
1892, the year before the big flood, was a big occasion for William and Margaret. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Wilhelmina, was the first of their children to be married. The wedding was celebrated on 11 March 1892 when she married Thomas Henry Haynes, a pilot at Bulwer Island.
Another wedding was to take place the following year when the eldest son, Arthur James, married Lizzie Elmes on 4 January 1893.
Winterford family
(Photograph taken in the Regatta Hotel, Toowong in 1891 or 1892) Standing from left to right: Mary Ann, William Henry, Elizabeth Wilhelmina, Alfred Edwin, Walter John and Alice Louise. Seated from left to right: Florence Emily, Arthur James, their mother Margaret, and father William with Beatrice Selina on the extreme right.The youngest daughter Maggie Hannah is seated in front of her father.
The date and place of birth of each of the above children is as follows:
Arthur James: 8.05.1865 at Albion Cotton Company Plantation, Logan River.
Elizabeth Wilhelmina: 14.03.1867 at Logan River.
Mary Ann: 13.12.1868 at Gympie.
Walter John: 11.8.1870 at Logan River.
William Henry: 25.05.1872 at Pimpama.
Alfred Edwin: 19.10.1873 at Pimpama.
Alice Louise: 12.04.1875 at Pimpama.
Beatrice Selina: 08.10.1876 at Pimpama.
Florence Emily: 23.08.1878 at Valley. (Possibly ‘The Valley’, Brisbane)
Maggie Hannah: 05.10.1882 at Yatala
Two other children William and Clara Isabella did not survive.
Ten years after the official opening of the Regatta Hotel, there was a downturn in trading, which resulted in the hotel being forfeited to the Mortgagees. Following the loss of the Regatta, the family moved to the Clarence Hotel in South Brisbane. The move took place in 1897. It was from here that two sons, Alfred Edwin and William Henry, enlisted in 1899 in the Queensland Mounted Infantry, for service in South Africa during the Boer War.
The turn of the century in 1900 was not a good year for the family. Alfred Edwin and William Henry were in South Africa fighting a war, and while they were away, the family lost their mother, and William, his wife of 37 years, when Margaret died on the 3rd of August.
Sergeant A.E. Winterford arrived back in Brisbane with his contingent from South Africa on 3 May 1901, and on the 10th of May, the unit was disbanded, leaving him free to resume civilian life. He returned to the Public Service as a Crown Land Ranger. On 30 October 1901, there was another wedding being celebrated, when he married Margaret Brereton Robinson in St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane.
The next family wedding was to be celebrated in 1904 when Walter John married Clara Jane Arthur, (nèe Cowl) in Broken Hill. Walter John was active as a miner in Broken Hill for some 35 years and was President of the Barrier Workers Association during a period of turbulent workers disputes.
Alfred Edwin resumed military duties during World War I, attended Duntroon and was promoted to Lieutenant. He was killed in action in France on 10 June 1918.
The interesting life of the family’s foundation member came to a close in the following year when William Winterford died in the Diamantina Hospital on 6 April 1919, and was buried in the Toowong Cemetery the day after. He was 84 years old.
William and Margaret’s descendants are now spread throughout Australia and number in the hundreds. The Regatta Hotel is now heritage-listed and is one of the iconic hotels of Brisbane.
Notes
Some have suggested that Mary Ann and Elizabeth Wilhelmina have been incorrectly positioned in the above caption. I suspect that they are probably right, but leave it to others to decide and comment. I have enclosed some additional pictures below to assist such decision.
Hopefully there are some better pictures to help us.
Elizabeth Wilhelmina
Mary Anne
Mary Anne as Bridesmaid; Elizabeth Wilhelmina as Bride (standing ?)
Thank you to Bruce Winterford for giving permission for publishing this history of the Winterford family.
https://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/William-and-Margaret-Winterford-Regatta-Hotel-Toowong.jpg7771088TDHShttp://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.pngTDHS2016-05-06 17:50:552021-11-20 20:58:08WILLIAM and MARGARET WINTERFORD
It was rather dark for 6 o’clock on a summers evening. Clouds circled above with the promise of rain which did not eventuate. The BrizWest Community Ensemble (about 15 in all) had unpacked their brass & percussion to strike out at Carols for a bit of a sing-a-long.
A film screen had been pitched for the scheduled 7pm showing of “Home Alone”. Lying beyond the screen picnic blankets paraded across the grounds with a few wise old chairs for the older sitters behind. Amid all of this, with the children chasing about, the sausage sizzle began. The crowd had swelled just short of 200 and the queues came to quite a length. All remained very well behaved as free Sausages, Coffee & Hot Chocolate were sought. Free Face Painting was also available.
Early in the evening I was introduced to Rick Hedges, who is the current administrator of Little Athletics and the Toowong Harriers. I took this as a good opportunity to present one of my Dad’s old club badges (pictured right) back to the Harriers as a visual icon of their history. My dad was Harold Cook, youngest brother to Jack. The other person of interest I met was my cousin Denis Cook who was in attendance with his wife Helen. Denis was Jack Cook’s son.
What is now known as Jack Cook Memorial Park was originally land that was established as part of Robert Cribb’s Farm (1852). After WW1 it became known as Heroes Park and transferred to the council as a trust to operate as a park.
Currently the park is often used for sports clubs and by personal fitness instructors. One club meets Thursday nights to play cricket and the grounds are frequented by an older citizens walking group (mainly from the retirement village next door). The Little Athletics and the Toowong Harriers both meet in the park and make use of the clubhouse.
An application for it to be gazetted as parkland was made successfully on 1 May 1984 and it was named as Jack Cook Memorial Park. The submission was made by both the Toowong Harriers and the Toowong RSL Sub-branch. Soon after a clubhouse was erected for the Toowong Harriers after which a dedication was given and Denver Beanland MLA officiated its opening.
The reopening of this park was effected by a speech from the Councillor for the Walter Taylor Ward, Julian Simmons, who outlined extensive work done to remove the hazardous rubbish from the topsoil, seal the base clay pan & backfill with fresh topsoil while also providing an inbuilt irrigation system certain to help save time. The remediation was also important, given the 2011 flood damage to the area.
It was noted that completion of the topsoil had not yet been finalized, with the expectation that all would be well over the next three weeks. The ceremony was finalized with a few words from Denis Cook about his father Jack and his long involvement with the club (since 1923 to his passing in 1984) and his desire that there be a home for the Harriers.
Thank you to Jack Cook’s niece Genean Wildesen for writing this report of the event
http://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.png00TDHShttp://toowonghistory.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Toowong-and-District-Historical-Society-Inc.pngTDHS2016-01-15 09:05:412018-03-25 07:57:13The 11 December 2015 Re-Opening of Jack Cook Park
Between 2014 and 2018 Australia is commemorating 100 years since our nation’s involvement in the First World War. All levels of government are actively supporting the commemorations, with the Australian Federal Government, under the slogan, ‘’The Spirit Lives 2014-2018’’, leading the Australian response. Numerous projects have been initiated to highlight aspects of the centenary commemoration, many of which have been financed by government grants. Australians have embraced the centenary commemorations by wholeheartedly supporting the numerous events that have been planned.
Anzac Day attendees using the newly-built pathway to access the Soldiers’ Memorial monument.
[Photograph by Ruth Sapsford]
On Anzac Day 2015 Australians and New Zealanders marked the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli when four infantry battalions of the 3rd Brigade, First Australian Division landed at dawn on 25 April 1915. The 11th Battalion, from Western Australia, came ashore not at Anzac Cove, but on the beach beneath the slopes leading down from Ari Burnu Point and Plugge’s Plateau.
According to The Courier-Mail (23 April 2015), more than 70 events were planned for Anzac Day in the greater Brisbane area alone. In Brisbane, it was later reported by various media sources that record crowds turned out to observe the Anzac centenary. The Federal Government’s website expresses the sentiment as follows:
Gallipoli has special significance to many Australians. For the families of those men who fought at Gallipoli, and in the many other battles and campaigns of the First World War, the centenary commemorations are particularly poignant.
In Toowong, the commemoration of the centenary of the Gallipoli landing was organised by the Toowong RSL Sub-branch, and held at Toowong Memorial Park. Anzac Day has been celebrated in the park since the Soldiers’ Memorial monument, erected on the summit of the hill in the park, was unveiled by the governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, on 2 July 1922. Dedicated to those who had enlisted from the Toowong area, the Memorial was financed by the citizens of Toowong, who gave generously to a public fundraising campaign chaired by Sir Alfred S. Cowley OBE, a former state speaker of the Queensland parliament. At the time, the hill gave extensive views across to Mt Coot-tha, around the surrounding district, and over to the eastern side of the Brisbane River.
The Soldiers’ Memorial illuminated by flood lights recently installed by the Brisbane City Council.
[Photograph provided by Cr Peter Matic.]
In recent years Toowong’s Anzac Day service started after dawn. In 2013, for example, the service commenced at 5.20am. Other years have been even later, at 6.00am or sometimes 6.30am. However, for the centenary year, the Toowong RSL Sub-branch decided that a dawn service should be held, commencing at 4.30am.
This was a return to the tradition of dawn services that the Toowong RSL sub-branch used to hold in times past. Also, there was a time when the dawn service had been preceded by a parade ending at Toowong Memorial Park. These traditions were set aside when their advanced years and increasing infirmity caught up with the WWI veterans, and prevented them from participating in the parade. Climbing the hill also proved beyond their capabilities. Therefore, the Toowong RSL Sub-branch erected a second smaller memorial just inside the repositioned gates of Toowong Memorial Park, and brought forward the starting time for the service to accommodate the aging ‘Digger’ population.
In 2014, the Brisbane City Council (BCC) restored both the Soldiers’ Memorial and the RSL’s Memorial to their original condition. In response to a TDHS submission, the BCC also constructed a pathway to the crest of the ridge to enable easier access to the Soldiers’ Memorial. The late Mr Percy Hanlon, a TDHS foundation management committee member, had spent many years prior to his death unsuccessfully campaigning for such a pathway, and the TDHS applied for it in his memory. The Society is pleased that the pathway that Mr Hanlon had campaigned for has now been built. Mrs Ruth Sapsford, who attended the Dawn Service as the TDHS’s representative, reports that a constant stream of people could be seen in the pre-dawn light making their way up to the pathway to the hill’s summit.
Floodlighting has also been installed at the base of the Soldiers’ Memorial and directed upwards to illuminate the column in the pre-dawn light. Cr Peter Matic of the Toowong Ward Office said he was delighted with the Council’s preparation of the park, and was especially thrilled by the impact of the lighting, describing the spectacle as ‘magnificent’.
This year the crowd attending the ceremony exceeded all expectations, and was estimated at over 2,000 people. The Brizwest Concert Band and the Church of Latter Day Saints choir performed the Australian and New Zealand anthems. Numerous wreaths were placed at the foot of the Soldiers’ Memorial, including one laid on behalf of the TDHS by Mrs Ruth Sapsford. On the conclusion of the service, all those who attended were invited to participate in a Gunfire Breakfast held in the park and hosted by Wests Rugby Union Club. A family day arranged by Wests then followed from 11am, and included a derby match between Wests Bulldogs and the Queensland University, followed by entertainment.
The Soldiers’ Memorial bathed
in the soft dawn light and surrounded by wreaths
Wreath laid at Soldiers’ Memorial by
the Toowong and District Historical Society
A BCC CityCat featuring the slogan ‘’Brisbane Remembers its Anzacs ‘’
travels downstream along the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River.
The Soldiers’ Memorial bathed in the warmth of the morning sun on Anzac Day.
Wreaths laid at the base of the Soldiers’ Memorial
[All of the above photographs provided by Ruth Sapsford.]
At the Ithaca War Memorial, Paddington, Dr Steven Miles MP, Minister for the Environment and the State Member for Mt Coot-tha, hosted Paddington’s Anzac Day’s Citizens’ Morning Service, which started at 7.30am. Again, a huge crowd attended. A highlight was the participation of children from local organisations and schools in the proceedings. Before the service commenced, the Bardon State School choir performed on the footpath adjacent to the park until the arrival of the Anzac Day parade. Marching in the parade to the accompaniment of the Boys’ Brigade Band were schoolchildren from Red Hill State School, local scouts and girl guide troops, and the Enoggera Boys’ and Girls’ Brigades units. After the arrival of the parade, Dr Miles awaited its formal dismissal before commencing the Anzac Day Service. Participants who gathered around the base of the Memorial were bathed in delicately dappled morning light which filtered through the canopies of the park’s fig trees and added a tranquil quality to the solemnity of the occasion.
Mrs Leigh Chamberlain, who represented the TDHS, read the Act of Remembrance. Her reading was followed by Dr Miles inviting attendees to join in the singing of the hymn, ‘Abide with Me’. After the playing of the Last Post and Reveille, the service concluded with the laying of wreaths by representatives of local organisations and personal tributes laid by individuals. Among the wreaths were those laid by several local politicians, including Dr Miles and Cr Peter Matic, of the BCC’s Toowong Ward.
Afterwards, people lingered to look at the wreaths and to greet friends, thus giving the occasion a sense of community. Gradually the crowd dispersed, leaving the Ithaca War Memorial to sit peacefully in the morning sun, surrounded by the numerous floral tributes laid reverently at its base.
The Bardon State School Choir performing
at the Ithaca War Memorial.
The Anzac Day Parade being dismissed.
Music was provided by the Boys’ Brigade Band
The Guard of Honour at the Ithaca War Memorial.
The flag at half-mast while the packed crowd
listens to the audio operator( front left)
playing The Last Post and Reveille.
[All of the above photographs provided by Leigh Chamberlain.]
While the ABC’s empty and neglected buildings and its transmission tower still stood on the Toowong site at 600 Coronation Drive after staff left the property in 2006 following a cancer cluster scare, locals still tended to associate the property with the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and its activities.
So while the ABC may have physically gone, spiritually it was still here.
But on Monday, 2nd February 2015, the fact that the ABC had actually ceased to be a part of the fabric of the local landscape really sank in when the iconic ABC transmission tower was dismantled. The tower, symbol of more than fifty years of broadcasting, was pulled down in just one day!
The ABC’s transmission tower awaiting demolition amid adjacent partly demolished buildings.[Photo courtesy of the Sunland Group]
The ABC’s transmission tower was the visible symbol of the ABC’s presence in Toowong. It was one of a series of landmarks along Coronation Drive that greeted passers-by, whether travelling by foot, train, car, bus or ferry. But after the demolition of the Toowong Swimming Pool directly across the road, the tower was one of the few local well-known landmarks left within a block or two of the High Street rail overpass bridge. It announced that you had indeed arrived in Toowong. (Motorists too relied on the tower and the ABC buildings to warn them that the Toowong High Street traffic lights were just ahead, and to ensure they were in the correct lane before it was too late!) Others took advantage of the presence of the ABC’s buildings and tower as a place marker when giving directions to visitors to the suburb.
The ABC had been located in Toowong for over fifty years. The ABC (formerly known as the Australian Broadcasting Commission until 1983) had purchased both “Middenbury” and the adjacent property, “Sidney House”, in 1957 and established new adjoining Queensland facilities for radio and television production and broadcasting here. When the ABC commenced its television broadcasting activities, its Brisbane channel, ABQ2, was opened on 2 November 1959. Unlike the three commercial television channels, who had both their recording studios and transmission towers on Mt Coot-tha, ABQ2 established its studios in the suburb of Toowong, but located its transmission towers on Mount Coot-tha. The Toowong tower was used to connect to the actual transmitters on Mt Coot-tha.
The Sunland Group, creator of Palazzo Versace and Q1 on the Gold Coast, bought the property in 2013 for $20 million. The demolition of the ABC’s Toowong transmission tower is part of Sunland’s preparations to clear the site in readiness for its proposed $420 million “champagne flute towers” development to be named ‘’Grace on Coronation’’. Preliminary demolition work commenced in November 2014. It was expected that another two to three weeks of work remained to be completed.
It took the efforts of eight construction workers to bring down the tower. The nostalgia of the occasion was not lost upon long-time local residents. The dismantlement of the transmission tower was seen as an historic occasion as it meant it was actually the end of the ABC’s presence in Toowong. To these people, it is indeed the end of an era! Some also commented that they will miss seeing the tower while driving outbound from the City down Coronation Drive.
Equipment being positioned in preparation for demolition of the ABC’s transmission tower.[Photo courtesy of the Sunland Group]
Most will agree that it’s sad seeing the ABC’s buildings and its symbol go. Often, the ABC would need generic visuals as background for a story, and from time to time, filming would take place at locations in Toowong and nearby inner city suburbs. People experienced a sense of pride that the suburb was chosen for this purpose, and delighted in identifying the locales used in such stories. Therefore it is not surprising that residents felt a sense of ownership of the ABC. The locals here also missed the ABC staff, some of whom used to meet colleagues after work at the RE (Royal Exchange Hotel).
‘’Middenbury’’ [Photographed in 2003 by heritage architect Michael Michaux].
The former ABC site also features a single-storeyed brick house called ‘’Middenbury’’, which Sunland has promised to protect. This undertaking is in accordance with the ABC placing a condition of sale on the property requiring the home be nominated for listing on the Queensland Heritage Council. This listing is also in accordance with the BCC 2012 Toowong Auchenflower Neighbourhood Plan. The building was recognised by the National Trust in 1969, and subsequently by Brisbane City Council’s heritage register. In an interview with The Brisbane Times on 22nd July, 2014, Sunland Group Executive Development Manager David Brown said the company always wanted to preserve the home. “It was always our intention to do something that respected the heritage building within its original context,” Mr Brown said. “The listing boundary ensures ‘Middenbury’ will remain in a park setting—this is a great outcome for the city and the development.”
The stately Queensland villa-styled house, thought to be the oldest surviving residence of its type in Toowong, was constructed for Mrs Eliza Rogers, ca. 1865. The residence was designed by architect James Cowlishaw, who, after his arrival in Brisbane in 1860, had established himself as being one of Brisbane’s first private architects. ‘’Middenbury’’ is rectangular in plan and surrounded by verandahs on three sides. Mrs Rogers, the widow of an officer of the Tasmanian Commissariat who had moved to Brisbane with her four children after the death of her husband, purchased the site of just over 6 acres (2.4 hectares) in 1865. She resided in the house until her death in October, 1875 when the property passed to her four children, Eliza, Minnie, Frank and Lewis. It was subsequently let to a number of prominent Brisbane families.
The home and the property was eventually subdivided and bought by Brisbane merchant Timothy O’Shea in 1891. It remained with the O’Shea family for 59 years. The O’Shea family hosted the Price of Wales at ‘’Middenbury’’ in 1920, in an era when the home had become one of the most respected residential properties on Brisbane’s riverside.
After the deaths of the O’Shea family the property was sold. Since then ‘’Middenbury’’ has been used for a time as a meeting place of the Friends of the ABC, and also as offices for the ABC.
The top section of the ABC‘s transmission tower being lowered to the ground after being detached from the tower’s base. [Photo courtesy of the Sunland Group]
The ABC may have been physically gone from Toowong for some time, but now that the symbolic transmission tower has been demolished, with its rubble dumped into skips in readiness for disposal, the fact that an era has indeed come to an end, will begin to sink in. This will be reinforced when the rest of the buildings follow suit, and no familiar features are left on the site.
In pondering this event, one could ask whether in another fifty years locals will continue to identify Toowong with the presence of the ABC, symbolised by its tower, or will time replace it with another ‘’iconic’’ symbol?
References:
Commonwealth Heritage List, Australian Government Department of the Environment, Australian Heritage Database, extracted on 3rd September, 2014 from website at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=105421
Department of Environment and Heritage Protection; Queensland Heritage Register entry for Middenbury (as published in The Government Gazette, 1 August 2014).
Queensland Heritage Council, Media release, extracted on 11 November 2014 from website at: http://www.qldheritage.org.au/600330-middenbury.html
Michael Michaux, Toowong – Heritage Architecture and Street Art: A self-guided tour of Toowong, 2003, Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., p. 19.
Jorge Branco, Historic Toowong ABC antenna tower demolished published in The Brisbane Times, 3 February, 2015 and extracted on 3 February 2015 from website at:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/historic-toowong-abc-antenna-tower-demolished-20150202-1340d1.html
The Courier-Mail, Thursday 7 July 1949, p. 4.
The Queenslander, Thursday 21 January 1932, p. 35.
Written by Leigh Chamberlain. Thanks to Ruth Sapsford for her assistance with proofreading. Thanks also to the Sunland Group for their assistance and for providing photographs, and to Michael Michaux who also provided a photograph.
Brisbane General Cemetery (aka Toowong Cemetery)
Local History, People, Places, Streets, Streetscapes and PlacesThe Brisbane General Cemetery’s picturesque setting maintains the visual allusion of the Victorian concept of a mortuary park on the outskirts of the city. After a sizable portion of land was set aside for cemetery purposes at Toowong in 1861, the appropriateness of the site at Toowong for the purpose of a General Cemetery was an issue contested for the next two decades. It’s isolation and doubts about the suitability of its site, with a lack of access and public transport, fuelled dissent and debate while the public continued to use the cheaper, more accessible familial grounds at Paddington.
The State government passed the Cemetery Act in 1866 providing the means to establish general cemeteries under the control of government appointed trustees. In 1868, a further portion of Crown land, 53 acres in area, north of the cemetery reserve was added to fulfil of the Trustee’s requirement for the entire cemetery to be surrounded with public roads. The reserve was gazetted and the Cemetery Trust established in October 1870. The grounds at the Cemetery were laid out by the prominent surveyor, George Phillips and the Cemetery was officially opened on 5 July 1875.
The first burial here was that of Colonel Samuel Wensley Blackall (1 May 1809-2 January 1871), an Irish soldier and politician who served as Queensland’s second Governor. He served from 14 August 1868 until he died while in office. As his health was declining, in 1870, he selected the highest burial site at the new Toowong Cemetery. Shortly after, he died in office on 2 January 1871. His memorial is the largest and most prominent in the cemetery with commanding views of the city and surrounds.
Between Governor Blackall’s burial and the official opening of the Cemetery, there were six burials. The next interment was Ann Hill, wife of Walter Hill, superintendent of the Botanical Gardens on 2 November 1871. Thomas and Martha McCulloch were buried in November 1873, Teresa Maria Love on 16 March 1875 and Florence and Ethel Gordon on 4 July 1875.
The distinctive Cemetery gates are an example of the Victorian concept of a mortuary park and were designed by F.D.G. Stanley, who later resided in Church (now Jephson) Street, Toowong. The gates were erected in 1873-74.
For more information about the history of the Toowong Cemetery please visit Friends of the Toowong Cemetery.
Raymond Dart: Toowong-born world renowned palaeontologist
Famous, Local History, PeopleResearched and written by Peter McNally
Raymond Dart (1893- 1988) was an anthropologist and palaeontologist who realized that a fossilized skull he was examining in 1924 was the earliest example of primordial bipedal man ever found to date, thus proving beyond doubt that human ancestors evolved out of Africa. Dart named the species Australopithecus africanus, the ‘southern ape from Africa’.
Robert Broom (a Scottish doctor who became a professional palaeontologist in 1933 at 67, and who was a long-time supporter of Dart) paid this tribute to Dart:
Raymond A. Dart’s discovery and analysis in 1924 was one of the most important in world history.
Early Years
Raymond Dart was born in Queensland, Australia in the inner western suburb of Brisbane on 4 February 1893. He almost didn’t make it as he, his mother, and her midwife had to be rowed to safety after he was born from the family grocery store in Sylvan Road, Toowong during one the Brisbane River floods of that year. He was the fifth born of nine children of Samuel Dart, a Queensland-born storekeeper, and his wife Eliza Ann, née Brimblecombe, who was born in New South Wales. He had seven brothers and a sister.
Despite being born in Toowong, Dart was raised mainly on a dairy farm near Laidley. His early education was at Toowong State School, which was then located in Aston Street, Toowong. He also attended Blenheim State and Ipswich Grammar schools. He later attended newly established The University of Queensland where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science on 17 April 1914 and a Master of Science, First Class Honours (in Biology), 10 May 1916. He later spent four years at the University of Sydney, studying medicine. All these qualifications were achieved before his 25th birthday.
After graduating, Dart left Australia and served in the medical corps as a captain and medic in the Australian Army in England and France during the last year of World War I. In 1920 Dart was appointed as a senior demonstrator at the University College, London at the direction of Grafton Elliot Smith. A famed anatomist and anthropologist, Smith was regarded as THE eminent anatomist in Britain. Interestingly, Grafton Elliot Smith, who was also a fellow Australian, had moved from Grafton (as in his name), New South Wales, to take up a position in London.
Dart then travelled to Washington University, St Louis, Missouri on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and then returned to his position at the University College, London,
In 1922, Dart left Britain to take up the position of Chair of Anatomy at South Africa’s newly established University of Witwatersrand’s fledgling Faculty of Medicine (sometimes called ‘Wit’s’ University). He was reluctant to do so, but agreed after encouragement from Elliot Smith and Scottish anatomist and anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith FRS, who was professor of physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain from 1918 to 1923 at the time. Dart was just 31 years of age.
Archival photograph of Raymond Dart holding the Taung skull [Courtesy of WITS University Archives]
Taung Child
In 1924, one of Raymond’s students brought him some quarry rubble containing a skull. After Dart painstakingly cleared away non-essential debris around the skull, he declared : In my opinion it is not a young chimpanzee, as many scientists have suggested. I believe it is a crossover between an ape, and a human, possibly a human ancestor.
Raymond named his skull the ‘Taung Child’ after where it was discovered. Dart then presented his findings to the scientific journal Nature, who published his report on 7 February 1925.
Eventually, the skull turned out to be the earliest example of primordial, bipedal man ever found. It also proved beyond doubt that human ancestors evolved out of Africa.
Back in 1925 Raymond claimed that this genus of hominid would have had a posture and teeth similar to modern humans. It also had a small ape-sized brain. Most importantly, Dart, being an anatomist, knew that the position where the vertebrae entered the skull meant it was bipedal.
Dart’s conclusions were met with hostility from other many anthropologists. It must have been disappointing for Raymond to be challenged by Grafton Elliot Smith, his own professor and mentor, who stated, ‘The Taung skull was more likely to have been a chimpanzee, not a human ancestor’. After a number of years, a disenchanted Raymond gave up searching for fossils, and went back to teaching.
Piltdown Man
Dart had accepted the science of the time, that the earliest human ancestor was indicated by the discovery of Piltdown Man’s skull. It was found in 1912 by amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson in Pleistocene gravel beds near the town of Piltdown in Sussex, Britain, and was regarded as the earliest known record of a pre-human fossil. This proved that human ancestors evolved out of Europe. Grafton Elliot Smith, one of the anthropologists that Dart had observed and admired while working in London, was later called to the town of Piltdown to help reconstruct pieces of the skull that had been found there.
The Piltdown Man was later exposed to have been a hoax, one of the biggest frauds in anthropological science history. The general public were horrified to find out that the hoax had taken place, and even more concerning, that it took 31 years for the deception to be discovered. Today, after much investigation, the fraudster has not been named.
After witnessing the Dart experience following the discovery of the ‘Taung Child’, Robert Broom, a doctor and anthropologist, became interested in the search for human ancestors. He explored dolomite caves in South Africa, particularly Sterkfontein Cave (now part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site). Twelve years later, while continuing his exploratory digs, Robert Broom, found an adult female skull of the ‘Taung Child’s’ genus among other fossils in 1936.
Robert Broom’s discoveries of further Australopithecines (as well as Wilfrid Le Gros Clark’s support) eventually vindicated Dart, so much so that in 1947, Sir Arthur Keith, who had publicly disputed Raymond’s claims, in 1947 made the statement: ‘…I was wrong and Raymond Dart was right!’
Dart, who recalled that back in 1871 Charles Darwin had stated, ‘It was more probable than not, human ancestors evolved out of the African continent’, had the historical sense to remind the world of Darwin’s words. Thus Raymond Dart’s second distinction after realising the significance of the ‘Taung Child’, was that he had turned Darwin’s ‘Probable’ into a ‘Definite!’
Another major contribution by Dart was that he established Witwatersrand University as the epicentre of human evolution science, research and achievement. The Institute for the Study of Mankind in Africa was founded in his honour.
Others who have followed in his footsteps have been Professor Phillip V. Tobias, Dart’s long-time collaborator, successor and biographer. Tobias died in 2012 aged 86. Currently, Professor Lee Berger is a major contributor to ‘Wit’s’ research. In 2013, he and his large team discovered the biggest primitive hominin assemblage in history. Another is Professor Ron Clark, the man who found an almost complete skeleton of a 3.67 million year old human ancestor. It was named ‘Littlefoot’. Berger and Clark, as well as many others, are continuing the tradition of Raymond A. Dart’s work.
Raymond A. Dart died in South Africa on 22 November 1988, aged 95. This year 2018 commemorates 30 years since his passing.
Peter McNally, the author of this article, was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1940. In 1975, Peter, his wife Judy, and their three sons moved to Queensland and over the past 25 years have lived in Brisbane, within 15 kilometres of where Raymond was born.
In recent years Peter has become very interested in researching the evolution of the Earth, and in particular, the evolutionary history of Australia, and human evolution within Australia. Peter further explains: ‘Australian’s evolutionary history goes back approximately 3.4 billion years ago to the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It’s one of the earliest places on earth where microscopic, biological, organism evidence has been discovered, making it one of the earliest places on earth, where life began.’
Thank you to Peter for sharing his research with the Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., and for giving permission for his article to be published.
References:
Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, 1985, p. 436hNational Geographic, Volume 168, No. 5 November 1985.
Also the following webpages:
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dart-raymond-arthur-12402
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_Link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Dart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Dart#cite_note-6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taung_Child
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-A-Dart
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/rdart.html
South African History online at http://www.sahistory.za
Places of significant interest
Local History, PlacesIntroduction:
Toowong and its neighbouring suburbs feature many places of historical interest.
Some places are well-known to the wider community and are regarded as being iconic to the area. These include buildings such the two hotels, Regatta and Royal Exchange; churches such as St Thomas’s Anglican Church and St Ignatius Catholic Church; residences such as Warrawee, Moorlands, Milton House and Dovercourt; and businesses such as the Castlemaine XXXX Brewery and Peerless Dry Cleaners.
Significant places in Toowong aren’t necessarily always buildings and houses. The divided road in High Street, now officially known as Patterson’s Folly, is in this category, as is the Crow’s Ash Tree on the corner of Sylvan Road and Milton Road.
There are others places less well known and these are hidden gems. These include Toby’s the Dog Postman’s Memorial and the Clock Tower in front of Toowong Village.
Other places can be described as localities or vicinities. In times past locals referred to the business area of Toowong as ‘The Village’—hence the origin of the name for the shopping centre now located in Sherwood Road. Other examples are Kayes Rocks and the bus turnaround in front of Toowong Village.
Yet other places have disappeared from the streetscape—some a long time ago and others more recently. These places may have disappeared but they still remain in the memory of those who still live here and also of those who used to live in the area. Sir Robert Philp’s former residence ‘Mallow’ is in this category—long gone due to fire, but still fondly remembered. Another is the Brisbane Cash and Carry (BCC), later bought out by Woolworths. Now Woolworths is also gone!
And who would forget Patterson’s Sawmill? Gone now for many, many years but still recalled nostalgically.
This article is the first segment of a series of articles about places of historical interest. Stay tuned as more articles will be added at a later date.
25/4/2018
Part 1
Badger’s house: Arlington; now known as Endrim
Address: 28 Woodstock Road, Toowong
Arlington was built in 1905 for American Joseph Stillman Badger. Badger, the manager of the Brisbane Tramways Company, had been sent to Brisbane in 1896 as its chief engineer by the General Electric Company to oversee the electrification of Brisbane’s horse-drawn tram network, but left GE in 1897. A proud American, Badger named the house Arlington in honour of the United States National Cemetery.
Badger’s house Arlington, Toowong Brisbane
The property was financed by the Brisbane Tramways Company, possibly as part of a salary package. Badger appears to have had a free hand in the design as the architecture has an American flavor. Rumours that the house was rumoured used steel tramway tracks as bearers has subsequently verified.
Badger moved to Arlington when work commenced upon the extension of the tramline from the gates of Brisbane General Cemetery, down Dean Street, and into Woodstock Road to terminate at the (Toowong) Tram Terminus situated just near his front gate. Badger used a gate built into his side fence to walk down concrete stairs built into the steep slope of the ridge to access the tram stop near to his residence where his private tram collected him to go into work.
Due to both his role in the electrification and extension of the Brisbane tramway network and his hardline opposition to unionism and the role he played in the lead up to the General Strike of January 1912, the residence has ever since been associated with his name. However, people refer to as Endrim, the name the property was later called, and not as Arlington.
References:
Leigh Chamberlain and Lindy Salter, Toowong; A tram ride from the past, Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., 2018, p.124.
David Burke, One American too many. Boss Badger and the Brisbane Trams, Queensland Museum, 2012.
Brisbane Boys’ College Rowing Shed
Address: Opposite the Regatta Hotel, Coronation Drive, Toowong
The Brisbane Boys College (BBC) boatshed was built on the river bank opposite the Regatta Hotel. After BBC relocated to Toowong from Clayfield in 1931, the school used the facilities of the Toowong Rowing Club. An application to build a new shed for the school was submitted to the Brisbane City Council (BCC). In response, the BCC closed off a public road located at the proposed site which allowed the application to proceed. Finance was raised through debentures offered to the Old Boys, from the college sports fund, and from the sale of the school’s former Breakfast Creek rowing shed. The use of Relief Labour during the depression years allowed the new rowing shed to be ready for use in September, 1933. After the 1974 flood in which the rowing sheds were destroyed the Toowong Rowing Club and the BBC rowing sheds were reconstructed next to The University of Queensland at St Lucia. The original ramps used to launch the shells at Toowong are still visible. GPS schools regattas were held on the Brisbane River up until 1973. After the 1974 flood a variety of venues have been used.
Brisbane Boy College Rowers Carry Scull from Boathouse at Toowong, Brisbane, 1947 .
Brisbane John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
Reference:
Noel Quirke, Gentleman of Honour: A History of Brisbane Boys College 1902-2002, Brisbane Boys College, 2001.
Brisbane Cash and Carry, Toowong
Address: High Street, Toowong
The arrival of Brisbane Cash and Carry in 1923 changed the nature of how ordinary Australians did their weekly grocery shop and was the first Australian self-service grocery store. Claude Fraser and his wife, Gladys, travelled to America to investigate the advent of self service grocery stores. Customers embraced the concept.
On the 7th November, 1953, BCC Store Pty Ltd purchased a large block of land in High Street, Toowong, where a new branch of BCC was opened. William Land, butchers of Toowong provided meat to BCC. Kevin Cocks, son of Leslie Cocks whose family had operated Cocks grocery store across the road in Sherwood Road, attributes the closure of the 2-generation Cocks family-run business to the arrival of BCC in the Toowong shopping precinct. By 1965 the Cocks Family business had closed. BCC continued to trade here until early 1967. Later that year new owners, Guardian Assurance Co, Ltd. leased the property to Woolworths (Queensland Ltd) for 40 years. Woolworths continued to trade here despite changes in land ownership until January 2017.
Reference:
Webpage at https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/brisbane-cash-and-carry/ extracted 2018.04.18.
Castlemaine Perkins Brewery
Address: Milton Road, Milton
The Castlemaine or Milton Brewery was established at Milton Brisbane in 1878 by Fitzgerald Quinlan and Co. The brothers Nicholas and Edward Fitzgerald had established brewing interests at Castlemaine in Victoria and then in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Newcastle. In Brisbane Quinlan Gray and Co had taken over interests of the Milton Distillery that was established on the site at Milton in 1870. The first brew by the new Milton Brewery was called Castlemaine XXX Sparkling Ale and was made to the same formula as the beer brewed by Castlemaine Brewery in Victoria.
Since medieval times when brewing was confined mainly to monasteries X, the sign of the cross, was a standard symbol of purity for alcoholic beverages. The number of X’s represented the strength of the beer. It was not until the early 1890s that the first trademark showing the 4Xs was applied for by the limited liability company Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan Gray and Co.
Castlemaine Brewery at Milton, Brisbane, 1879. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
References:
History of the Castlemaine Perkins Brewery, 1877-1993, compiled by the Public Affairs Department, Castlemaine Perkins Limited Public Affairs Department, Milton, Qld, 1993.
Melva A Welch, Bergin Beauty. John Delaney Bergin Family, 2014, p.36.
Cook Terrace
Address: Corner of Park Road and 249 Coronation Drive, Milton.
JB Cook, who was a builder, applied to the Toowong Shire Council to build an hotel on the corner of Cribb Street and The River Road in 1887, but the Council rejected the proposal as it felt it was not necessary. There were two other hotels in the district. J B Cook then built Cook Terrace as his own residence after the application was rejected. Architects of the building were Taylor & Richer of 169 Queen Street, Brisbane. By 1922 Cook Terrace were also known as the Home Flats. Mr and Mrs Frederick and Ethel Laugher, brother and sister-in-law of the Misses Laugher after whom Laugher Park was named, leased a terrace house here c.1922-1929. By the early 1970s Cook Terrace had ceased to be a residential building and instead became commercial premises, which included restaurants. The property is a landmark in the district and is now heritage-listed.
Subsidence along the River Road (Coronation Drive) after 1893 floods with Cook Terrace in background. 1893. Brisbane John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
References:
RHSQ Queensland History Journal, May 14 Vol 22, No.5, p396-7.
Leigh Chamberlain, The Laugher sisters of Toowong and their park, Toowong and District Historical Society, 2011.
Cross River Ferry
Address: across from the Regatta Hotel, Coronation Drive, Toowong
The ferries have existed since convict days and have been a vital transport facility for Brisbane. The first ferry in the district ran from Park Road Milton to South Brisbane commencing around 1914, and ceased in the 1940s. Percival Patrick Hanlon, the lessee, commenced the new Toowong–Hill End ferry service which operated from near the Regatta Hotel to Ferry Road, West End in 1922. It ran until1953. He first commenced operation using a row boat and then graduated to motor boats. An elderly Toowong resident recalls enjoying a ride across the river on the ferry for one penny. Various fares applied but “elephants were free’’. When Mr Hanlon became ill his wife Elizabeth Hanlon, nee Dale, obtained her Master’s license and ran the ferry during her husband’s illness but in 1953 Mr Hanlon was forced to retire from work. This ferry service continued until January 1974 when the Australia Day floods destroyed the jetty and pontoon.
Ferry – Toowong 1920’s. Brisbane City Council (1920).
References:
John, Pearn, Auchenflower. The suburb and the name, 1997.
Percy Hanlon, ‘Oh-ver’: History of Brisbane Cross River Ferries, 2000.
Percy Hanlon, ‘Memories of a Ferryman’s son’. p124 in Leigh Chamberlain and Lindy: Salter, Toowong. A tram ride from the past: Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., 2008
We’re Building a Better TDHS Experience
Webmaster UpdatesHi TDHS members, It’s webmaster Genean here. Currently I am working in conjunction with a great team to develop a better web experience for you all. Please bear with us whilst we make some changes and upload great new information for our wonderful society.
I found this great image of our first footsteps west… “Milton is where the shire begins”
History of the Toowong Shire
Local History, PlacesThe history of local government in the Toowong area 1880-1925
The story of Toowong’s municipal governance is part of a wider story which dates back to 1859 when Queensland separated from New South Wales as a colony in its own right in 1859.
The colony inherited New South Wales’s local government legislation, the Municipalities Act 1858, which allowed the creation of a municipality with its own elected council to manage local affairs, upon the petition of householders in the area.
Not many local areas took up the opportunity to establish local municipal bodies, and by 1878, only eighteen towns had incorporated in this way. Therefore, the Local Government Act 1878, based on Victorian legislation enacted four years earlier, was passed with the aim of allowing more diverse forms of local government. Each board had a number of councilors and a chairman who was appointed from amongst their number.
The Toowong Division was established on 11 November 1879 under the Divisional Boards Act 1879 with a population of 1789.
In May 1880, the more populated part of Toowong Division was proclaimed the Shire of Toowong, while the remaining part of the Toowong Division was renamed as the Indooroopilly Division.
In 1903, the Toowong Shire became the Town of Toowong. Over its period of tenure (1903-25) the Toowong Town Council continued to administer local governance to Toowong, Auchenflower, Milton and parts of Mt Coot-tha.
In 1925 the Town of Toowong was one of many local municipal authorities that amalgamated to form the Greater Brisbane Council. The City of Brisbane Act 1924 received assent from the Governor on 30 October 1924, thereupon, on 1 October 1925, 20 local government areas of various sizes were abolished and merged into the new city.
Today, Toowong, Auchenflower, Milton and Mt Coot-tha are described as suburbs of Brisbane.
Thanks to Melba Welch OAM for providing the research that this article is based.
Fond Memories of our family home
UncategorizedFond Memories of our family home
Ed Faux has provided the following memories about the Faux family residence, which was located at 57 Dunmore Terrace, Auchenflower.
My father, Eric Faux, purchased the home from a friend of his by the name of Arthur Biggs, (which would have been about 1950-51), who ran a printing company located in the city of Brisbane.
Arthur Biggs had two children, Bruce and Nerada. Bruce was to become Dr Bruce Biggs, who partnered two other doctors in a medical practice at the ‘Fiveways’, Gailey Road, Taringa. This would have been in the mid-1950s. In later years (in the 1970s) they expanded their business to include a small medical practice at the shopping centre in Hawken Drive, St Lucia.
Bruce was also at some time president of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Medical Association.
When the eldest three of Eric’s family of five children had left home, he divided the house into two individual areas and rented the southern side of the house to Mrs Negus and her son George, who later became a well-known journalist and TV commentator.
When the house was divided into two sections, my father had the external walls of the house covered in “Faux Brick”
At that time you could sit on the veranda and watch the sailing or rowing races on the Brisbane River below and looking to the northwest you could see the Milton Tennis Courts. There were no high-rise buildings in the area.
Thank you to Ed Faux for providing these memories of his childhood home, and to his sister Shirley for providing the photo. Shirley’s husband Howard Foley assisted by preparing the print for publication.
WILLIAM and MARGARET WINTERFORD
Local History, PlacesWilliam and Margaret Winterford | Regatta Hotel, Toowong (1882–1897)
William Winterford (1834-1919) was the second son of James and Elizabeth (nèe Gillet) Winterford, Publicans of Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, England. William was christened “Levi” in All Saints Church, Shepreth, on 1st June 1834.
William came to Australia in 1855 on the ship Ballarat arriving at Port Phillip Bay. Records indicate that William paid £18/2/6 as the fare. It would appear that at that time he had no particular trade or calling as he was listed simply as a Gentleman.
William followed his brother John and sister Eliza Gillet Edds who came to Australia as assisted immigrant’s on the Thetis in 1849. William and John are believed to have had a Bullock dray business along the east coast of Australia and we know they were both in Rockhampton in 1863. It may be that John and William were attracted to the area by the Canoona Gold Rush of 1858.
William married Margaret Hannah in Rockhampton in 1863. Margaret was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 11/01/1844. William’s profession was listed on his marriage certificate as ‘Bushman’. The newly married couple headed south to the Logan River area which had been opened up for settlement in 1824 and where cotton was now being grown.
It is apparent that John Winterford went his own way prospecting and was to drown alone in a flooded creek near Nockatunga Station in 1882.
William and Margaret Winterford lived and worked in the Logan River area until 1870, when they moved onto their own selection at Pimpama. During their years at Logan River, they started a considerable family.
The family of six took up residence on Block 173 at Pimpama, where in June 1870 William had also selected the adjoining block No.256. The Homestead block, No.173, was 80 acres of first class agricultural land, while the adjoining block 256, consisted of 188 acres overall and made up of 80 acres of agricultural land and 108 acres of second class pastoral land. Record has it that William improved his Homestead block 173 with the construction of a 4 roomed bark house with a bark roof, also a large slab building containing a barn, a cart house and a store, with a roof of bark. There was also a bark hut for workmen. Eleven acres were cleared and fenced with a sapling fence. The crops planted were sugarcane and maize. He also had a few cattle on the property.
On the second block, 15 acres was cleared with10 acres under cotton and the other 5 acres planted with sugarcane. On this block he constructed 30 chains of sapling fencing.
During this period in Pimpama the Winterford’s managed to increase their family with another four children being born. On 25 May 1872, a son, William Henry was born, and on 19 October 1873, another son, Alfred Edwin, arrived. The next arrival was a girl, Alice Louisa, who was born at Pimpama on 12 April 1875.
Another daughter, Beatrice Selina was born 8th December 1876 and in 1878, yet another daughter, Florence Emily, was born on 23 August at ‘The Valley’. It is assumed that the reference is to Fortitude Valley in Brisbane.
William Winterford obtained a Retail Spirit Dealers License in December 1879 for the Beenleigh area and operated his first liquor license at the Ferry Hotel (built in 1871) at Yatala on the Albert River.
William also acquired the Wharf Street Brisbane premises in 1879 which accommodated the family and operated as Public House.
Another addition to the family, Maggie Hannah was born at Yatala on 5 October 1882.
During this period William purchased the original Regatta Hotel on the Brisbane River at Sylvan Road in Toowong.
In 1886 William had great plans for his old wooden hotel. It was removed from the site to make way for a completely new development. He commissioned the architect Richard Gailey to design a much larger building to blend with its position on the bank of the Brisbane River. George Gazzard carried out the construction at a cost of £4,800. The finished product was outstanding in every respect. The new Regatta Hotel was officially opened in 1887 and enjoyed good trading for 10 years in spite of the big flood of 1893 when the Brisbane River broke its banks.
Proposed new Regatta Hotel, drawn 1887
Another daughter, Clara Isabella was born in Brisbane on 29 May 1884. Unfortunately Clara died three months later on 28 August.
1892, the year before the big flood, was a big occasion for William and Margaret. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Wilhelmina, was the first of their children to be married. The wedding was celebrated on 11 March 1892 when she married Thomas Henry Haynes, a pilot at Bulwer Island.
Another wedding was to take place the following year when the eldest son, Arthur James, married Lizzie Elmes on 4 January 1893.
Winterford family
(Photograph taken in the Regatta Hotel, Toowong in 1891 or 1892)
Standing from left to right: Mary Ann, William Henry, Elizabeth Wilhelmina, Alfred Edwin, Walter John and Alice Louise.
Seated from left to right: Florence Emily, Arthur James, their mother Margaret, and father William with Beatrice Selina on the extreme right.The youngest daughter Maggie Hannah is seated in front of her father.
The date and place of birth of each of the above children is as follows:
Ten years after the official opening of the Regatta Hotel, there was a downturn in trading, which resulted in the hotel being forfeited to the Mortgagees. Following the loss of the Regatta, the family moved to the Clarence Hotel in South Brisbane. The move took place in 1897. It was from here that two sons, Alfred Edwin and William Henry, enlisted in 1899 in the Queensland Mounted Infantry, for service in South Africa during the Boer War.
The turn of the century in 1900 was not a good year for the family. Alfred Edwin and William Henry were in South Africa fighting a war, and while they were away, the family lost their mother, and William, his wife of 37 years, when Margaret died on the 3rd of August.
Sergeant A.E. Winterford arrived back in Brisbane with his contingent from South Africa on 3 May 1901, and on the 10th of May, the unit was disbanded, leaving him free to resume civilian life. He returned to the Public Service as a Crown Land Ranger. On 30 October 1901, there was another wedding being celebrated, when he married Margaret Brereton Robinson in St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane.
The next family wedding was to be celebrated in 1904 when Walter John married Clara Jane Arthur, (nèe Cowl) in Broken Hill. Walter John was active as a miner in Broken Hill for some 35 years and was President of the Barrier Workers Association during a period of turbulent workers disputes.
Alfred Edwin resumed military duties during World War I, attended Duntroon and was promoted to Lieutenant. He was killed in action in France on 10 June 1918.
The interesting life of the family’s foundation member came to a close in the following year when William Winterford died in the Diamantina Hospital on 6 April 1919, and was buried in the Toowong Cemetery the day after. He was 84 years old.
William and Margaret’s descendants are now spread throughout Australia and number in the hundreds. The Regatta Hotel is now heritage-listed and is one of the iconic hotels of Brisbane.
Notes
Some have suggested that Mary Ann and Elizabeth Wilhelmina have been incorrectly positioned in the above caption. I suspect that they are probably right, but leave it to others to decide and comment. I have enclosed some additional pictures below to assist such decision.
Hopefully there are some better pictures to help us.
Elizabeth Wilhelmina
Mary Anne
Mary Anne as Bridesmaid; Elizabeth Wilhelmina as Bride (standing ?)
Thank you to Bruce Winterford for giving permission for publishing this history of the Winterford family.
The 11 December 2015 Re-Opening of Jack Cook Park
UncategorizedIt was rather dark for 6 o’clock on a summers evening. Clouds circled above with the promise of rain which did not eventuate. The BrizWest Community Ensemble (about 15 in all) had unpacked their brass & percussion to strike out at Carols for a bit of a sing-a-long.
A film screen had been pitched for the scheduled 7pm showing of “Home Alone”. Lying beyond the screen picnic blankets paraded across the grounds with a few wise old chairs for the older sitters behind. Amid all of this, with the children chasing about, the sausage sizzle began. The crowd had swelled just short of 200 and the queues came to quite a length. All remained very well behaved as free Sausages, Coffee & Hot Chocolate were sought. Free Face Painting was also available.
Early in the evening I was introduced to Rick Hedges, who is the current administrator of Little Athletics and the Toowong Harriers. I took this as a good opportunity to present one of my Dad’s old club badges (pictured right) back to the Harriers as a visual icon of their history. My dad was Harold Cook, youngest brother to Jack. The other person of interest I met was my cousin Denis Cook who was in attendance with his wife Helen. Denis was Jack Cook’s son.
What is now known as Jack Cook Memorial Park was originally land that was established as part of Robert Cribb’s Farm (1852). After WW1 it became known as Heroes Park and transferred to the council as a trust to operate as a park.
Currently the park is often used for sports clubs and by personal fitness instructors. One club meets Thursday nights to play cricket and the grounds are frequented by an older citizens walking group (mainly from the retirement village next door). The Little Athletics and the Toowong Harriers both meet in the park and make use of the clubhouse.
An application for it to be gazetted as parkland was made successfully on 1 May 1984 and it was named as Jack Cook Memorial Park. The submission was made by both the Toowong Harriers and the Toowong RSL Sub-branch. Soon after a clubhouse was erected for the Toowong Harriers after which a dedication was given and Denver Beanland MLA officiated its opening.
The reopening of this park was effected by a speech from the Councillor for the Walter Taylor Ward, Julian Simmons, who outlined extensive work done to remove the hazardous rubbish from the topsoil, seal the base clay pan & backfill with fresh topsoil while also providing an inbuilt irrigation system certain to help save time. The remediation was also important, given the 2011 flood damage to the area.
It was noted that completion of the topsoil had not yet been finalized, with the expectation that all would be well over the next three weeks. The ceremony was finalized with a few words from Denis Cook about his father Jack and his long involvement with the club (since 1923 to his passing in 1984) and his desire that there be a home for the Harriers.
Thank you to Jack Cook’s niece Genean Wildesen for writing this report of the event
Anzac Day Centenary Commemoration (2015)
UncategorizedAnzac Day Centenary Commemoration (2015)
Between 2014 and 2018 Australia is commemorating 100 years since our nation’s involvement in the First World War. All levels of government are actively supporting the commemorations, with the Australian Federal Government, under the slogan, ‘’The Spirit Lives 2014-2018’’, leading the Australian response. Numerous projects have been initiated to highlight aspects of the centenary commemoration, many of which have been financed by government grants. Australians have embraced the centenary commemorations by wholeheartedly supporting the numerous events that have been planned.
[Photograph by Ruth Sapsford]
On Anzac Day 2015 Australians and New Zealanders marked the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli when four infantry battalions of the 3rd Brigade, First Australian Division landed at dawn on 25 April 1915. The 11th Battalion, from Western Australia, came ashore not at Anzac Cove, but on the beach beneath the slopes leading down from Ari Burnu Point and Plugge’s Plateau.
According to The Courier-Mail (23 April 2015), more than 70 events were planned for Anzac Day in the greater Brisbane area alone. In Brisbane, it was later reported by various media sources that record crowds turned out to observe the Anzac centenary. The Federal Government’s website expresses the sentiment as follows:
Gallipoli has special significance to many Australians. For the families of those men who fought at Gallipoli, and in the many other battles and campaigns of the First World War, the centenary commemorations are particularly poignant.
In Toowong, the commemoration of the centenary of the Gallipoli landing was organised by the Toowong RSL Sub-branch, and held at Toowong Memorial Park. Anzac Day has been celebrated in the park since the Soldiers’ Memorial monument, erected on the summit of the hill in the park, was unveiled by the governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, on 2 July 1922. Dedicated to those who had enlisted from the Toowong area, the Memorial was financed by the citizens of Toowong, who gave generously to a public fundraising campaign chaired by Sir Alfred S. Cowley OBE, a former state speaker of the Queensland parliament. At the time, the hill gave extensive views across to Mt Coot-tha, around the surrounding district, and over to the eastern side of the Brisbane River.
[Photograph provided by Cr Peter Matic.]
In recent years Toowong’s Anzac Day service started after dawn. In 2013, for example, the service commenced at 5.20am. Other years have been even later, at 6.00am or sometimes 6.30am. However, for the centenary year, the Toowong RSL Sub-branch decided that a dawn service should be held, commencing at 4.30am.
This was a return to the tradition of dawn services that the Toowong RSL sub-branch used to hold in times past. Also, there was a time when the dawn service had been preceded by a parade ending at Toowong Memorial Park. These traditions were set aside when their advanced years and increasing infirmity caught up with the WWI veterans, and prevented them from participating in the parade. Climbing the hill also proved beyond their capabilities. Therefore, the Toowong RSL Sub-branch erected a second smaller memorial just inside the repositioned gates of Toowong Memorial Park, and brought forward the starting time for the service to accommodate the aging ‘Digger’ population.
In 2014, the Brisbane City Council (BCC) restored both the Soldiers’ Memorial and the RSL’s Memorial to their original condition. In response to a TDHS submission, the BCC also constructed a pathway to the crest of the ridge to enable easier access to the Soldiers’ Memorial. The late Mr Percy Hanlon, a TDHS foundation management committee member, had spent many years prior to his death unsuccessfully campaigning for such a pathway, and the TDHS applied for it in his memory. The Society is pleased that the pathway that Mr Hanlon had campaigned for has now been built. Mrs Ruth Sapsford, who attended the Dawn Service as the TDHS’s representative, reports that a constant stream of people could be seen in the pre-dawn light making their way up to the pathway to the hill’s summit.
Floodlighting has also been installed at the base of the Soldiers’ Memorial and directed upwards to illuminate the column in the pre-dawn light. Cr Peter Matic of the Toowong Ward Office said he was delighted with the Council’s preparation of the park, and was especially thrilled by the impact of the lighting, describing the spectacle as ‘magnificent’.
This year the crowd attending the ceremony exceeded all expectations, and was estimated at over 2,000 people. The Brizwest Concert Band and the Church of Latter Day Saints choir performed the Australian and New Zealand anthems. Numerous wreaths were placed at the foot of the Soldiers’ Memorial, including one laid on behalf of the TDHS by Mrs Ruth Sapsford. On the conclusion of the service, all those who attended were invited to participate in a Gunfire Breakfast held in the park and hosted by Wests Rugby Union Club. A family day arranged by Wests then followed from 11am, and included a derby match between Wests Bulldogs and the Queensland University, followed by entertainment.
The Soldiers’ Memorial bathed
in the soft dawn light and surrounded by wreaths
Wreath laid at Soldiers’ Memorial by
the Toowong and District Historical Society
A BCC CityCat featuring the slogan ‘’Brisbane Remembers its Anzacs ‘’
travels downstream along the Toowong Reach of the Brisbane River.
The Soldiers’ Memorial bathed in the warmth of the morning sun on Anzac Day.
Wreaths laid at the base of the Soldiers’ Memorial
[All of the above photographs provided by Ruth Sapsford.]
At the Ithaca War Memorial, Paddington, Dr Steven Miles MP, Minister for the Environment and the State Member for Mt Coot-tha, hosted Paddington’s Anzac Day’s Citizens’ Morning Service, which started at 7.30am. Again, a huge crowd attended. A highlight was the participation of children from local organisations and schools in the proceedings. Before the service commenced, the Bardon State School choir performed on the footpath adjacent to the park until the arrival of the Anzac Day parade. Marching in the parade to the accompaniment of the Boys’ Brigade Band were schoolchildren from Red Hill State School, local scouts and girl guide troops, and the Enoggera Boys’ and Girls’ Brigades units. After the arrival of the parade, Dr Miles awaited its formal dismissal before commencing the Anzac Day Service. Participants who gathered around the base of the Memorial were bathed in delicately dappled morning light which filtered through the canopies of the park’s fig trees and added a tranquil quality to the solemnity of the occasion.
Mrs Leigh Chamberlain, who represented the TDHS, read the Act of Remembrance. Her reading was followed by Dr Miles inviting attendees to join in the singing of the hymn, ‘Abide with Me’. After the playing of the Last Post and Reveille, the service concluded with the laying of wreaths by representatives of local organisations and personal tributes laid by individuals. Among the wreaths were those laid by several local politicians, including Dr Miles and Cr Peter Matic, of the BCC’s Toowong Ward.
Afterwards, people lingered to look at the wreaths and to greet friends, thus giving the occasion a sense of community. Gradually the crowd dispersed, leaving the Ithaca War Memorial to sit peacefully in the morning sun, surrounded by the numerous floral tributes laid reverently at its base.
The Bardon State School Choir performing
at the Ithaca War Memorial.
The Anzac Day Parade being dismissed.
Music was provided by the Boys’ Brigade Band
The Guard of Honour at the Ithaca War Memorial.
The flag at half-mast while the packed crowd
listens to the audio operator( front left)
playing The Last Post and Reveille.
[All of the above photographs provided by Leigh Chamberlain.]
Written by Leigh Chamberlain
Historic Toowong ABC antenna tower demolished
UncategorizedHistoric Toowong ABC antenna tower demolished
That’s it—the ABC has really gone now!
While the ABC’s empty and neglected buildings and its transmission tower still stood on the Toowong site at 600 Coronation Drive after staff left the property in 2006 following a cancer cluster scare, locals still tended to associate the property with the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and its activities.
So while the ABC may have physically gone, spiritually it was still here.
But on Monday, 2nd February 2015, the fact that the ABC had actually ceased to be a part of the fabric of the local landscape really sank in when the iconic ABC transmission tower was dismantled. The tower, symbol of more than fifty years of broadcasting, was pulled down in just one day!
The ABC’s transmission tower was the visible symbol of the ABC’s presence in Toowong. It was one of a series of landmarks along Coronation Drive that greeted passers-by, whether travelling by foot, train, car, bus or ferry. But after the demolition of the Toowong Swimming Pool directly across the road, the tower was one of the few local well-known landmarks left within a block or two of the High Street rail overpass bridge. It announced that you had indeed arrived in Toowong. (Motorists too relied on the tower and the ABC buildings to warn them that the Toowong High Street traffic lights were just ahead, and to ensure they were in the correct lane before it was too late!) Others took advantage of the presence of the ABC’s buildings and tower as a place marker when giving directions to visitors to the suburb.
The ABC had been located in Toowong for over fifty years. The ABC (formerly known as the Australian Broadcasting Commission until 1983) had purchased both “Middenbury” and the adjacent property, “Sidney House”, in 1957 and established new adjoining Queensland facilities for radio and television production and broadcasting here. When the ABC commenced its television broadcasting activities, its Brisbane channel, ABQ2, was opened on 2 November 1959. Unlike the three commercial television channels, who had both their recording studios and transmission towers on Mt Coot-tha, ABQ2 established its studios in the suburb of Toowong, but located its transmission towers on Mount Coot-tha. The Toowong tower was used to connect to the actual transmitters on Mt Coot-tha.
The Sunland Group, creator of Palazzo Versace and Q1 on the Gold Coast, bought the property in 2013 for $20 million. The demolition of the ABC’s Toowong transmission tower is part of Sunland’s preparations to clear the site in readiness for its proposed $420 million “champagne flute towers” development to be named ‘’Grace on Coronation’’. Preliminary demolition work commenced in November 2014. It was expected that another two to three weeks of work remained to be completed.
It took the efforts of eight construction workers to bring down the tower. The nostalgia of the occasion was not lost upon long-time local residents. The dismantlement of the transmission tower was seen as an historic occasion as it meant it was actually the end of the ABC’s presence in Toowong. To these people, it is indeed the end of an era! Some also commented that they will miss seeing the tower while driving outbound from the City down Coronation Drive.
Most will agree that it’s sad seeing the ABC’s buildings and its symbol go. Often, the ABC would need generic visuals as background for a story, and from time to time, filming would take place at locations in Toowong and nearby inner city suburbs. People experienced a sense of pride that the suburb was chosen for this purpose, and delighted in identifying the locales used in such stories. Therefore it is not surprising that residents felt a sense of ownership of the ABC. The locals here also missed the ABC staff, some of whom used to meet colleagues after work at the RE (Royal Exchange Hotel).
The former ABC site also features a single-storeyed brick house called ‘’Middenbury’’, which Sunland has promised to protect. This undertaking is in accordance with the ABC placing a condition of sale on the property requiring the home be nominated for listing on the Queensland Heritage Council. This listing is also in accordance with the BCC 2012 Toowong Auchenflower Neighbourhood Plan. The building was recognised by the National Trust in 1969, and subsequently by Brisbane City Council’s heritage register. In an interview with The Brisbane Times on 22nd July, 2014, Sunland Group Executive Development Manager David Brown said the company always wanted to preserve the home. “It was always our intention to do something that respected the heritage building within its original context,” Mr Brown said. “The listing boundary ensures ‘Middenbury’ will remain in a park setting—this is a great outcome for the city and the development.”
The stately Queensland villa-styled house, thought to be the oldest surviving residence of its type in Toowong, was constructed for Mrs Eliza Rogers, ca. 1865. The residence was designed by architect James Cowlishaw, who, after his arrival in Brisbane in 1860, had established himself as being one of Brisbane’s first private architects. ‘’Middenbury’’ is rectangular in plan and surrounded by verandahs on three sides. Mrs Rogers, the widow of an officer of the Tasmanian Commissariat who had moved to Brisbane with her four children after the death of her husband, purchased the site of just over 6 acres (2.4 hectares) in 1865. She resided in the house until her death in October, 1875 when the property passed to her four children, Eliza, Minnie, Frank and Lewis. It was subsequently let to a number of prominent Brisbane families.
The home and the property was eventually subdivided and bought by Brisbane merchant Timothy O’Shea in 1891. It remained with the O’Shea family for 59 years. The O’Shea family hosted the Price of Wales at ‘’Middenbury’’ in 1920, in an era when the home had become one of the most respected residential properties on Brisbane’s riverside.
After the deaths of the O’Shea family the property was sold. Since then ‘’Middenbury’’ has been used for a time as a meeting place of the Friends of the ABC, and also as offices for the ABC.
The ABC may have been physically gone from Toowong for some time, but now that the symbolic transmission tower has been demolished, with its rubble dumped into skips in readiness for disposal, the fact that an era has indeed come to an end, will begin to sink in. This will be reinforced when the rest of the buildings follow suit, and no familiar features are left on the site.
In pondering this event, one could ask whether in another fifty years locals will continue to identify Toowong with the presence of the ABC, symbolised by its tower, or will time replace it with another ‘’iconic’’ symbol?
References:
Commonwealth Heritage List, Australian Government Department of the Environment, Australian Heritage Database, extracted on 3rd September, 2014 from website at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=105421
Department of Environment and Heritage Protection; Queensland Heritage Register entry for Middenbury (as published in The Government Gazette, 1 August 2014).
Queensland Heritage Council, Media release, extracted on 11 November 2014 from website at: http://www.qldheritage.org.au/600330-middenbury.html
Michael Michaux, Toowong – Heritage Architecture and Street Art: A self-guided tour of Toowong, 2003, Toowong and District Historical Society Inc., p. 19.
Jorge Branco, Historic Toowong ABC antenna tower demolished published in The Brisbane Times, 3 February, 2015 and extracted on 3 February 2015 from website at:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/historic-toowong-abc-antenna-tower-demolished-20150202-1340d1.html
The Courier-Mail, Thursday 7 July 1949, p. 4.
The Queenslander, Thursday 21 January 1932, p. 35.
Written by Leigh Chamberlain. Thanks to Ruth Sapsford for her assistance with proofreading. Thanks also to the Sunland Group for their assistance and for providing photographs, and to Michael Michaux who also provided a photograph.