Living in St Lucia Part 1 (Pre WWII)
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Living in St Lucia Part 1 (Pre WWII) Peter Brown St Lucia History Group Paper 14 ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP RESEARCH PAPER 14. ST LUCIA - LIVING IN ST LUCIA Part 1 (Pre WW II) Author: Peter Brown © 2017 CONTENTS: Page 1. Introduction 2 2. Pioneer Settlers 2 3. Life in St Lucia pre WW II 8 3.1 Childhood in 1900 – Lloyd Rees 8 3.2 The Moreton Regiment 13 3.3 Travelling to work in the City 13 3.4 Dutton Park attractions 13 3.5 First World War 14 3.6 War Service Homes 15 3.7 Childhood in the 1920s – Ruth Gillespie 15 3.8 Newly wed in the 1920s – The Coles 18 3.9 1929 St Lucia looks to the future – Sunday Mail 19 3.10 Depression Era 19 3.11 Childhood in the 1920s and 1930s 21 3.12 St Lucia aerodrome 24 3.13 Photographs 1930s 29 3.14 ‘St Lucia – The Future Hamilton of the City’ 31 Peter Brown 2017 Private Study Paper – not for general publication St Lucia History Group PO Box 4343 St Lucia South QLD 4067 Email: [email protected] Web: brisbanehistorywest.wordpress.com.au PGB/History/Papers/14Living in St LPt1 Page 1 of 31 Printed October 12, 2017 ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP 1. INTRODUCTION For the last sixty years St Lucia has been known as the home of the University of Queensland. For the last one hundred years or so St Lucia has also primarily been a dormitory suburb for the City of Brisbane. Prior to that it was mainly a farming community, then known at various times as part of West Milton, Toowong South, Indooroopilly, Indooroopilly Pocket or Taringa. The farms supplied sugar, bananas, market garden produce, dairy items, and beef cattle to the growing towns of Brisbane and Ipswich, using the river as the principal means of transport. Cotton and sugar were both grown for a period. Even when the railway came to Toowong in 1875, the farmers and their families had to travel the tortuous track from the peninsular, up (Carmody Rd) and (Swann Rd to Fiveways), down and around (Indooroopilly Rd), over Toowong Creek and up (Burns Rd). There were no shops in (St Lucia) until the Ironside Post Office and Store was opened by David Guyatt on (Sir Fred Schonell Dr) Portion 9, probably around 1892.1 The Great Flood occurred on the 5th, the 12th and again on the 19th of February 1893, totally inundating all the low-lying land, in some cases by as much as eight metres.2 The floods went as far back as Carmody Rd in places, and the power of the water washed away some buildings in its path. This Paper looks at life for the residents of St Lucia from the original Pioneer farmers of the 1850s through to the period just before World War II. 2. PIONEER SETTLERS Most of the eventual farmers of St Lucia and Long Pocket were Assisted Migrants from Great Britain who arrived directly into Moreton Bay. For instance the 1000 ton sailing ship Monsoon arrived on 13 August 1854 and the large 1300 ton Genghis Khan the following day. Both ships had sailed from Liverpool England via the Cape of Good Hope direct to Moreton Bay, and the Monsoon had made the trip in 92 days and the Genghis Khan in just 75 days. They carried between them 868 government assisted immigrants. It was reported that those on the Genghis Khan: …have arrived in good health. They are mostly Scotch [sic] and Irish, a few only being English mechanics and laborers [sic]…there were on board 103 married couples, 93 single men, 49 single females, and 129 children under 14 years of age – making a total of 477. The immigrants are reported as an extremely well conducted class, and a finer body of men could not be seen. Seven deaths occurred on the passage, all of them children, 5 being infants and the other two each two years old. They all died from natural causes. Four children were born on the passage.3 On the Monsoon were Patrick Carmody and his sister, Mary, William Rawlins and Catherine Corbett; on the Genghis Khan were Henry Corbett, Richard Potter and wife Rachael and a McKinnon family, all of whom were to become associated with St Lucia and Long Pocket. Toowong resident of the 1880s J B Fewings wrote of the 1860s: no railroad, no roads, no omnibuses, no Shire Council, no church, no School of Arts, no Salvation Army, no schools, no Masonic Lodge, no doctor… what a forlorn existence of destitution and discomfort must it have been.4 1 A. Darbyshire St Lucia – ‘Postal’ Services Paper dated November 2003. 2 Areas affected by floodwater, staff surveyor Bedford, 25/3/1893; Sunmap Museum. 3 The Moreton Bay Courier 19 August 1854 p2 c1. 4 Helen Gregory Arcadian Simplicity. PGB/History/Papers/14Living in St LPt1 Page 2 of 31 Printed October 12, 2017 ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP Few records have been found of the day to day life the original pioneer farmers of St Lucia. Fortunately some of the farmers in neighbouring areas did record their beginnings at a similar time and we must be content with borrowing from their stories. Two particularly families have recorded their histories, the Sinnamons at Mt Ommaney, and the Brimblecombe/Dart families at Gold Creek, Brookfield. Both records are too long for a Paper such as this, and only very small excerpts are quoted below. H V Sinnamon in 1980 wrote a book about his grandfather’s and father’s time at Seventeen Mile Rocks in the 1860s.5 They purchased virgin bush about four years after the St Lucia farmers purchased their blocks, and went on to clear the land, start a school etc just as happened in St Lucia. The following extracts are quoted from chapter 2 of that book merely to give an indication of how our pioneers might have lived in the early 1860s: In 1864 immigrant James Sinnamon, his wife Margaret, seven sons and four daughters…built a large slab hut with a bark roof and earthen floor. Water was obtained from the small creek and after dark a bowl of fat with a piece of cloth as a wick would provide a dismal light for their abode. Furniture was sparse and home-made. A pile of stones under a tree was the fireplace where food was prepared. Food was of the simplest kind and flour, sugar and tea were the staple stores… wildlife would supplement the diet. Margaret used to walk the twenty kilometres to Brisbane with a basket of eggs to sell... With only axes they set about clearing the scrub, about a hectare at a time… each felled area was fired…the roots would be dug or burnt out... they even improvised a plough out of local timber to help them. In 1868 the family planned to build a new house. A saw pit was constructed and the seven sons set about felling and hauling timber. Most of the nails used in construction of the house were hand-made, and wooden shingles split from bush timber were used as roofing The family grew cotton for a short time... but reverted to the cultivation of potatoes, maize, pumpkins etc. for the Brisbane and Ipswich markets’ Mrs Eliza Ann Dart at age 77 in 1939 began to write her reminiscences in letters sent to her son, Professor Raymond Dart, in Johannesburg. In later years he turned those of the period 1828 – 1910 into a typewritten manuscript for the enjoyment of others. Mr John Dart (grandson) has been kind enough to provide us with a copy of her wonderful story. Whilst Eliza had a long association with Toowong and Indooroopilly in later years, it is her story of pioneer farming at Brookfield in the 1870s and ‘80s that are of particular interest here: Eliza Dart (neé Brimblecombe) was just seventeen in 1879 when she married twenty-year old Samuel, younger brother of William Dart, farmer of Portion 13 in the future St Lucia. Eliza had arrived ten years earlier with her family, who took up a land selection in Brookfield, on Moggill Creek. Much of her story is similar to the Sinnamons above, and no doubt similar to the early pioneer farmers of the future St Lucia. The following extracts are brief extracts from her reminiscences: [In 1869] Father…had only been able to clear enough land to keep the trees from reaching the house when felled. The home was roomy, and built of hardwood slabs. The roof was covered with hardwood shingles, and the bedroom had split boards of pine laid on the earth. All the timber was split by hand with the aid of maul and wedges from timber felled on the farm…the crystal clear water-creeks were our special delight…we had weeks of rain, and, when stepping out of bed, the water came up between the boards. 6 Wolston House was built in the area about the same time, and remains as a National Trust Property today, open some weekends and well worth inspection. 5 H V Sinnamon (1980) The Gentlemen Farmers Paradise: Sinnamon, sourced by J Magub from Taringa History Group. 6 The Reminiscences of Eliza Ann Dart typed by her son Raymond, copy provided by J Dart, M England PGB/History/Papers/14Living in St LPt1 Page 3 of 31 Printed October 12, 2017 ST LUCIA HISTORY GROUP In 1869 The Brisbane Courier reported ‘death of sunstroke of Robert Hunter at Dart’s farm’7 Back in (St Lucia) there were no community facilities.