BRISBANE : A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CAPITAL OF QUEENSLAND; GIVING AN OUTLINE OF OLD —TIME EVENTS, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF BRISBANE OF THE PRESENT DAY, —AND— A MUNICIPAL RETROSPECT (ILLUSTRATED). Written by Authority by J. J. KNIGHT (Author of "In the Early Days," etc.) BRISBANE PRINTED BY BIGGS & MORCOM, LTD., 21 EAGLE STREET. JANUARY, 1897. ... Brisbane of the Past. 5 N the early part of the now dying century, when Australia, as Australia, was the veriest infant, an old cutter, with all sails set, might have been seen cruising Brisbane 0 aimlessly about in the vicinity of Amity Point. There was nothing particularly startling about the craft ; the oddity lay in the fact that a vessel should be found there at all. It was, at any rate, the first that had for a score or more years the Past. of disturbed those waters, and so far as human knowledge can decide, there had not A RETROSPECT. 1,>ii< been more than two ships there before. It was an early December morning, the sun, like a ball of fire, was just lifting, as it were, out of the illimitable expanse of water into an equally illimitable expanse of cloudless, blue Sky. Early though it was, a few forms were moving about the vessel's deck ; all were apparently interested, and deeply .so. A man wearing a long blue coat, epaulets and cocked hat, paced the deck with stately step. He was deep in thought. Bye and bye he stopped. Lifting a telescope to his eye he gazed intently for a few seconds at some object ; then conversed with a personage who too had been interested in the object and had been resting with his arms on the taffrail. "Let go the anchor," came the order—seemingly the result of the consultation. It was promptly obeyed. The craft had by this time entered a channel which one of the two previously visiting ships had designated Pumicestone River. Why, has not even yet been discovered. The lettering on the bows of the cutter was now quite visible from the shore. These letters betrayed the fact that the new arrival was no less a distinguished visitor than the Imperial service boat " Mermaid," bound from Port Curtis southward, she having been to the North on a voyage of discovery. So far she had, as regards the East coast of Australia at least, accomplished little beyond firicling " a rapid mountain stream," which the gentleman wearing the cocked hat had named the Boyne. But on this fine December morning " the lucky chance that oft decides the fate of mighty monarchs " made for ever famous Lieutenant Oxley, for it was he who directed the Mermaid expedition. The anchor chain was being paid out. A party of blacks, moved by a stronger magnet than curiosity, gathered on the beach and with strange 6 awe watched the proceedings. One of the Mermaid's company—the one to whom Oxley had spoken before deciding to anchor—was likewise curious. It was his business to search out novelties, which explained perhaps the intentness of his gaze at the fast gathering blacks. The personage so interested was John Uniacke. There was something about one of these dusky individuals which prompted him to suggest to Oxley that investigation was desirable. On the adoption of this suggestion rests Oxley's fame; for coincident with, and consequent upon the carrying of the proposal into effect was the foundation of Brisbane. A boat was sent ashore and it was then found that the object of Uniacke's curiosity was really a white man bronzed through exposure, who hailed the boat's company in the mother tongue and greeted them affectionately. The story of Pamphlet, Finnigan, and Parsons, the castaway timber-getters, has been so often told that its recital in detail here might be regarded as monotonous. At the same time brief reference to it becomes necessary when treating in even a small way of the discovery of this portion of Australia. These three, with a fourth named Thompson, left Sydney in March, 1823, for Illawarra in quest of cedar, but encountering one of the dangers of the deep—a gale—they were driven out to sea. Thompson died of exposure ; the others were eventually washed with their boat on to Moreton Island (then spelled Morton). They were in an exhausted and emaciated condition. The trio had a hazy idea as to their whereabouts. They seemed tolerably certain that they were in the mainland, for Finnigan and Parsons conceived the plan of walking to Sydney and actually set out. On the other hand, Pamphlet considered it wiser to remain with blacks who had treated them most hospitably. Indeed, the dispensation of hospitality seems to have been one of the strong characteristics of the natives of this continent until contaminated by a civilised race. Pamphlet was not destined to remain long without the company of a fellow countryman, for Finnigan and Parsons had gone but a short distance when they quarrelled and the former returned. What became of Parsons no one ever knew. The fate of the surviving two would have been equally obscure had it not been for Uniacke. Certain it is that Oxley left their rescue unrecorded. His reasons for doing so may presently be observed. Oxley introduces the discovery of the Brisbane River thus :—" Early on the 2nd December following, when examining Moreton Bay, we Brisbane , from the Observatory-Looking East 9 had the satisfaction to find the tide sweeping us up a considerable inlet between the first mangrove island and the mainland The muddiness and the taste of the water, together with the abundance of fresh water molluscw, assured us we were entering a large river, and a few hours ended our anxiety on that point by the water becoming quite fresh, while no diminution had taken place in the size of the river after passing what I called Sea Reach." The real facts show that however clever Oxley's attempt at self-glorification may be, his statement is decidedly misleading. Unfortunately for Oxley, but fortunately for history, Uniacke had kept a diary, and in this he had taken both Pamphlet's and Finnigan's statements, and years afterwards he published them to the world. In this it is set forth that the rescued timber-getters concurred in a story they told Oxley " of a large river they had crossed, a river which fell into the south end of the Bay." This story it was that prompted Oxley to search the neighbourhood, which search ended in the "finding" of the Brisbane by himself. " Messrs. Oxley and Stirling " (Lieutenant Stirling of the Buffs) says Mr. Uniacke, " started next morning in a whaleboat, taking with them Finnigan and four days' provisions in order to explore it." THE FOUNDATION OF BRISBANE. But after all, the one fact which interests us most here is that the Brisbane was discovered and explored. Beyond its historic value it matters little by whom. Its discovery relieved Governor Brisbane (after whom it was named) of a weight of trouble, inasmuch, as it gave him a much-wanted new dumping-ground for " thrice convicted felons " who were now a fairly numerous class. Sydney was getting either too respectable or too populous, and the opportunity afforded by Oxley's discovery to get rid of some of the cast-offs was eagerly embraced. It seems a trifle significant, however, that although Oxley pulled—according to himself—fifty miles up the river, had found it navigable 120 miles from its mouth and wrote of its indescribable richness and beauty, he failed to find on its banks a site immediately suited for the requirements of a new convict depot. He chose instead Redcliffe (named nearly a quarter of a century before by Matthew Flinders), the difficult anchorage notwithstanding. Redcliffe, as we know, is now the centre of an extremely popular marine resort. I 0 Redcliffe was not destined to long remain the hotbed of cruelty and crime. It was said officially that the place was frightfully unhealthy ; that fresh water was scarce. The fact was the blacks were too troublesome to be pleasant and offered reprisals for the many questionable acts of the Imperial staff. Once more the services of Oxley were requisitioned. This time (1824) he fixed the site either at Petrie's Bight or at William Street:ipehind the present Museum—there is a doubt which. The weight of opinion fixes the camping ground at the latter spot. Shortly afterwards Governor Brisbane came and saw the new depot. Oxley conquered, and notwithstanding the audacity of the Chief Justice who accompanied the vice-regal party, and who had the assurance to name the site Eclinglassie, gave to the settlement the name of the river on which it was located—Brisbane. For may years, however, it was not so designated ; the name Moreton Bay was applied to both bay and depot, and it stuck to it well nigh up to the time of Separation. Thus will it be seen that in a single lifetime-1824 to 1897—Brisbane has been converted from primeval forest to cathedral city ; from the haunt of the felon to the home of the freeman. Truly three score years and ten have brought a remarkable transformation ! In its infantile days, brisbane was in common with other parts of Australia broad-arrowed with crime. The rattle of the convicts' gang chains and the constant whish ! whish ! of the lash co-mingling with the curses of the whippers and the prayers of the whipped was the doleful music played at its birth ! Convictism hung like a pall over Moreton Bay (or Brisbane) from 1824 to 1839, roughly speaking.