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CONSTRUCTION of PETTRIGREW's SAWMILL CLOSE by the COMMISSARLST STORE in 1853 by Ruth S

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CONSTRUCTION of PETTRIGREW's SAWMILL CLOSE by the COMMISSARLST STORE in 1853 by Ruth S 177 CONSTRUCTION OF PETTRIGREW'S SAWMILL CLOSE BY THE COMMISSARLST STORE IN 1853 by Ruth S. Kerr The first significant industrial development in Brisbane occurred one hundred and thirty-seven years ago when William Pettigrew opened his steam driven sawmill on the bank of the Brisbane River at the corner of William and Margaret Streets. The machinery was landed on 25 April 1853 from the Palmero and it commenced sawing on 28 June 1853. The north bank of the Brisbane River was then an expanding commercial centre with an increasing population. There was a ready market for sawn timber. William Pettigrew was born on 28 August 1825 in Ayrshire, Scotland, and learnt surveying at a Scottish academy. As the surveyor to Dr John Dunmore Lang's Cooksland Colonization Company he immigrated to Brisbane on the Fortitude in January 1849. When the project failed to materialize he went to work for Dr Stephen Simpson at Woogaroo, surveying Moreton Bay pastoral runs. There was a disagreement between Pettigrew and Simpson at Christmas 1851 and Pettigrew came to Brisbane on 3 January 1852 looking for land. Within three weeks he had title to land in William Street. In August 1852 he learnt of his father's death and two months later received a £200 Bill of Excahnge from his brother, Robert, for the purpose of erecting a sawmill — to be a shed 24 feet wide, 12 feet high and at least 80 feet long. Pettigrew organized sawyers, timber from Hockings in South Brisbane, and 150 slabs from the scrub opposite Woogaroo, and hired his half-brother David McKergow to help erect it. On 20 October 1852 John Petrie's men brought the first punt load of stores to the site and started driving piles. Next day they started on the wharf, which took till the end of the year to complete. On 4 November 1852 Hockings brought 62 rafters each 19 by 5 by 2V2 feet, eight wall plates and four ridge poles. Pettigrew borrowed blocks from Petrie and McKergow and Mellor dressed the posts by cutting the tops and sides. On 13 November bullock drivers, Richards and Brooks brought in all the timber contracted for in the scrub and were paid £29.10.0. Hockings brought the rest of the timber on the 15th for £30. Next day they put up the wall plates; they finished tieing on the beams on the 19th and then worked on the rafters. 178 They were sufficiently well advanced at the end of November for Pettigrew to start arranging for the river transport of his pine slabs from PuUen PuUen Creek. They then worked on the beams, purlins and rafters till Christmas. On 9 December 1852 Pettigrew ordered 8,000 shingles from Hocking and they had most on the roof by Christmas. Then McKergow did the windows and Mellor and Pettigrew dug the well in January 1853. Over Christmas 1852 spent at Wolston House Pettigrew transcribed the sawmUl entry from Penny's Encylopedia. The design of the sawmill chimney came from the Brisbane WindmiU as he visited it and examined the stones on 29 December. He also saw John Petrie and sketched the chimney the same day. It was to be 40 feet high (5 feet 8 inches at the base outside, 2 feet 8 inches inside, 28 inches around the outside at the top and 20 inches inside) and it was early May before Petrie's men began buUding it. On 15 January 1853 he applied to the Government Resident, Captain Wickham for mill stones and John Petrie delivered two cart loads of stone chips for the chimney base. Pettigrew also had to build an incline road up to William Street. Pettigrew's Sawmill, bottom left. In 1893 after the flood and showing preparations for the new Victoria Bridge. 179 Pettigrew left for Sydney on the Eagle on 23 February 1853. He visited sawmiUs and studied the Carpenter's and Joiner's Companion at the Sydney School of Arts. His machinery, comprising the boiler, flywheel, and nine cases including the saw, arrived on the Dutch ship, Anna en Elise, on 13 March and he arranged with Captain Wyborn of the Palmero to convey it to Brisbane. He insured it for | £1,300 and then travelled with it back to Brisbane, arriving on 20 April. Two of Petrie's men helped unload the mill on 25 April. Samuel Gower was hired as engine driver and Buntin to assemble the boiler. On 6 May Pettigrew made a drawing of the machinery arrangement. The bricklayers finished bricking the boiler and Buntin set the flywheel in place on 7 June. There were other essential requirements. Pettigrew bought coal for the boiler from Captain Williams on the Brisbane River. On 19 May 1853 he wrote to WUUam Duckett White on the Logan for buUocks, and four days later bought a buUock team from John Smith, a carrier, for £100. He also contracted with Richards and Brooks to haul timber for five shillings and sixpence per 100 feet. Pettigrew had buUock drivers working hauling from Woogaroo, PuUen PuUen and as far away as Wivenhoe in the Brisbane Valley. He bought 30,000 feet of timber at Seventeen Mile Rocks for five shUlings per 100 feet. He also applied for two large selections of 1,150 and 1,040 acres at MoggiU at ten shiUings an acre. The 20 horse power boiler was first fired on 24 June, the chimney reached the top next day, and steam was raised on the 27th. The saw first operated on the 28th. Pettigrew's sold his first sawn timber to John Petrie - 304 feet of one inch boards and 108 feet of five-eighth inch boards on 14 July 1853. Dr Stephen Simpson's Christmas Cheer for Pettigrew was that the sawmill would ruin him and that flour mills were better. How wrong Simpson was — the sawmill operated for decades. SOURCES 1. Pettigrew's Diaries 1852-1853 held by Royal Historical Society of Queensland. 2. Johnston, W. Ross, Brisbane: The First 30 Years (Brisbane, Boolarong Publications, 1989) pp.202-2-3. 3. Whitmore, Ray L., Coal in Queensland- the First Fifty Years (Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 1981) pp.28-30,32-36. 180 The emigrant ship Artemesia bound for Moreton Bay. above, and below, the emigrants on deck. .
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