History of Brisbane

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History of Australia

Capital Cities

Brisbane

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is named for Sir Thomas Brisbane (1773–1860), British soldier and colonial administrator born in Ayrshire, Scotland. Sir Thomas Brisbane was Governor of New South Wales at the time that Brisbane was named.

1 European exploration
2 Establishment of a Penal Colony
3 Free settlement
4 Development in the early years of the colony of Queensland
5 Amalgamation of Local Government Areas
6 Brisbane during the Second World War
7 Post-War Brisbane
8 Brisbane's historical timeline
9 References
10 External links

[edit] European exploration

Prior to European settlement, the Brisbane region was occupied by Aboriginal tribes.

The region was first explored by Europeans in 1797, when Matthew Flinders made a landing at what is now Woody Point in Redcliffe. A permanent settlement in the region was not founded until a quarter century later, when New South Wales Governor Brisbane was petitioned by free settlers in Sydney to send the worst convicts elsewhere.

On October 23, 1823, Surveyor General John Oxley set out with a party in the cutter "Mermaid" from Sydney to "survey Port Curtis [now Gladstone], Moreton Bay and Port Bowen, with a view to forming convict settlements there". The party reached Port Curtis on November 5. Oxley suggested that the location was unsuitable for a settlement, since it would be difficult to maintain.

As he approached Point Skirmish into Moreton Bay, he noticed several Indigenous Australians approaching him, led by several white bedraggled timbergetters. The white men turned out to be shipwrecked timbergetters by the names of Thomas Pamphlett, Richard Parsons, John Finnegan and John Thomson who had left Sydney on March 21 of the same year to sail south from Sydney along the coast in search of cedar but during a large storm were pushed north of Sydney but did not know this, so went north trying to get back to Sydney, eventually getting shipwrecked on Moreton Island. They had been living with the Indigenous tribe for seven months.

After meeting with them, Oxley proceeded approximately 100km up what he later named the Brisbane River in honour of the then-Governor Brisbane. Oxley explored the river as far as what is now the suburb of Goodna in the city of Ipswich, about 20km upstream Brisbane's central business district. Several places were named by Oxley and his party including Breakfast Creek (at the mouth of which they cooked breakfast), Oxley Creek and Seventeen Mile Rocks.

[edit] Establishment of a Penal Colony

In 1824, the first convict colony was established at Redcliffe Point under Lieutenant Miller. Meanwhile, Oxley and Allan Cunningham explored further up the Brisbane River in search of water, landing at the present location of North Quay. Only one year later, in 1825, the colony was moved south from Redcliffe to a peninsula on the Brisbane River, site of the present Central Business District, called "Mean-jin" by the local Turrbul inhabitants. The settlement was named "Edenglassie" (in honour of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland) by British pioneers but was subsequently renamed to match the river. The official population of Brisbane at the end of 1825 was "45 males and 2 females".

The colony was originally established as a "prison within a prison" - a settlement, deliberately distant from Sydney, to which convicts who reoffended while serving their sentences could be sent as punishment. It soon garnered a reputation, along with Norfolk Island, as being one of the harshest penal settlements in all of New South Wales.

[edit] Free settlement

As a penal colony, private settlements near the area was forbidden for many years. As the inflow of new convicts decreased steadily, the population began to decline. In 1838, the area was opened up for free settlers, as distinct from convicts. An early group of Lutheran missionaries from Germany were granted land in what is now the northside suburb of Nundah. In 1839 the first three surveyors, Dixon, Stapylton and Warner arrived in Moreton Bay to prepare the land for greater numbers of European settlers. From the 1840s settlers took advantage of the abundance of timber in local forests. Once cleared, land was quickly utilized for grazing and other farming activities. The convict colony was eventually closed.

The free settlers did not recognise the local aboriginal ownership and were not required to provide compensation to the Turrbul Aboriginal people. By 1869 almost all of the Turrbul people had died from gunshot or disease. The few remaining survivors escaped the region with the help of a settler, Thomas Petrie, (now associated with the suburb of Petrie in the Moreton Bay region, north of Brisbane).

[edit] Development in the early years of the colony of Queensland

Queensland was formally established as a self-governing colony of Britain separate from New South Wales in 1859.

Originally the neighbouring city of Ipswich was intended to be the capital of Queensland but it proved too far inland to allow access by large ships and so Brisbane was chosen as the capital instead. However it was not until 1902 that it was officially designated a city.

The 1893 Black February floods caused severe flooding in the region and devastated the city. Raging flood waters destroyed the first of several versions of the Victoria Bridge. Even though gold was discovered north of Brisbane, around Maryborough and Gympie, most of the proceeds went south to Sydney and Melbourne. The city remained an underdeveloped regional outpost, with comparatively little of the classical Victorian architecture that characterized southern cities.

The first railway in Brisbane was built in 1879 when the line from the western interior was extended from Ipswich to Roma Street Station. First horse-drawn, then electric Trams operated in Brisbane from 1885 till 1969. Tramway employees stood down for wearing union badges on 18 January 1912 sparked Australia's first General strike, the 1912 Brisbane General Strike which lasted for five weeks.

In an effort to prevent overcrowding and control urban development, the Parliament of Queensland passed the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1885, resulting in Brisbane and other Queensland cities having very low population densities and covering large areas compared to similar Australian cities.

This legislation, together with the advent of efficient public transport in the form of steam trains and electric trams encouraged the spread of the city. Although the initial tram routes reached out into established suburbs such as West End, Fortitude Valley, New Farm and Newstead later extensions and new routes encouraged housing developments in new suburbs, such as the western side of Toowong, Paddington, Ashgrove, Kelvin Grove and Coorparoo. This was a pattern of development to continue through to the 1950s, with later extensions encouraging new developments around Stafford, Camp Hill, Chermside, Enoggera and Mt Gravatt. Generally the train lines linked established communities, although the Mitchelton line (later extended to Dayboro), before being cut back to Ferny Grove) did encourage suburban development out as far as Keperra.

Subsequently, with the availability of affordable private motor cars, land between tram and train routes was developed for settlement, for example Ekibin, Tarragindi, Everton Park, Stafford Heights and Wavell Heights.

[edit] Amalgamation of Local Government Areas

In 1924, the City of Brisbane Act was passed by the Queensland Parliament, amalgamating the Cities of Brisbane and South Brisbane; the Towns of Hamilton, Ithaca, Sandgate, Toowong, Windsor and Wynnum; and the Shires of Balmoral, Belmont, Coorparoo, Enoggera, Kedron, Moggill, Sherwood, Stephens, Taringa, Tingalpa, Toombul and Yeerongpilly to form the current City of Greater Brisbane, now known simply as City of Brisbane, in 1925. To accommodate the new enlarged city council the current Brisbane City Hall was opened in 1930. Many former shire and town halls became the nucleus of Greater Brisbane's public library network.

[edit] Brisbane during the Second World War

Due to Brisbane's proximity to the South West Pacific Area theatre of World War II (Second World War), the city played a prominent role in the defence of Australia. The city became a temporary home to thousands of Australian and American servicemen. Buildings and institutions around Brisbane were given over to the housing of military personnel as required. The present-day MacArthur Central building became the Pacific headquarters ^[1] of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, and the University of Queensland campus at St Lucia was converted to a military barracks for the final three years of the war. St Laurence's College and Somerville House Girls' School in South Brisbane were also used by American forces. During this time St Laurence's College was moved to Greenslopes to continue classes. Newstead House was also used to house American servicemen during the war.

Brisbane was used to mark the position of the "Brisbane Line", a controversial defence proposal allegedly formulated by the Menzies government, that would, upon a land invasion of Australia, surrender the entire northern part of the country. The line was, allegedly, at a latitude just north of Brisbane and spanned the entire width of the continent.

On 26 November and 27 November 1942, rioting broke out between US and Australian servicemen stationed in Brisbane. By the time the violence had been quelled one Australian soldier was dead, and hundreds of Australian and US servicemen were injured along with civilians caught up in the fighting ^[2]. Hundreds of soldiers were involved in the rioting on both sides. This incident, which was heavily censored at the time and apparently was not reported in the US at all, is known as the Battle of Brisbane.

[edit] Post-War Brisbane

The consequence of years of inadequate civic finances - a city largely unsewered, with outhouses behind each home. The city was not completely sewered until the early 1970s

Immediately after the war, the Brisbane City Council, along with most governments in Australia, found it difficult to raise finances for much-needed repairs and development. Even where funds could be obtained materials were scarce. Adding to these difficulties was the political environment encouraged by some aldermen, led by Archibald Tait, to reduce the city's rates (land taxes). Ald Tait successfully ran on a slogan of "Vote for Tait, he'll lower the rate." Rates were indeed lowered, exacerbating Brisbane's finances.

Although Brisbane's tram system continued to be expanded, roads and streets remained unsealed. Water supply was limited, although the City Council built and subsequently raised the level of the Somerset Dam on the Stanley River. Despite this, most residences continued to rely heavily on rainwater stored in tanks.

The limited water supply and lack of funding also meant that despite the rapid increase in the city's population, little work was done to upgrade the city's sewage collection, which continued to rely on the collection of nightsoil. Other than the CBD and the innermost suburbs, Brisbane was a city of "thunderboxes" (outhouses) or of septic tanks.

What finances could be garnered by the Council were poured into the construction of Tennyson Powerhouse, and the extension and upgrading of the powerhouse in New Farm Park to meet the growing demands for electricity.

Work continued slowly on the development of a town plan, hampered by the lack of experienced staff and a continual need to play "catch-up" with rapid development. The first town plan was adopted in 1964.

1961 saw the election of Clem Jones as Lord Mayor. Ald Jones, together with the town clerk J.C. Slaughter sought to fix the long term problems besetting the city. Together they found cost-cutting ways to fix some problems. For example new sewers were laid 4 feet deep and in footpaths, rather than 6 feet deep and under roads. In the short term, "pocket" or local sewerage treatment plants were established around the city in various suburbs to avoid the expense of developing a major treatment plants and major connecting sewers.

They were also fortunate in that finance was becoming less difficult to raise and the city's rating base had by the 1960s significantly grown, to the point where revenue streams were sufficient to absorb the considerable capital outlays.

Under Jones' leadership, The City Council's transport policy shifted significantly. The City Council hired American transport consultants Wilbur Smith to devise a new transport plan for the city. It recommended the closure of most suburban railway lines, closure of the tram and trolley-bus networks, and the construction of a massive network of freeways through the city. Under this plan the suburb of Woolloongabba would have been almost completely obliterated by a vast interchange of three major freeways. Although the trams and trolley-buses were rapidly eliminated between 1968 and 1969, only one freeway was constructed, the trains were retained and subsequently electrified. The first train line to be so upgraded was the Ferny Grove to Oxley line in 1979. The train line to Cleveland, which had been cut back to Lota in 1961, was also reopened.

Brisbane has been inundated by four severe floods of the Brisbane River – in 1864, 1893, 1897 and 1974. A comprehensive flood mitigation scheme was instituted for the Brisbane River catchment area in the aftermath of the 1974 flood. Since then the city has remained largely flood free.

Brisbane hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1982 and the World's Fair in 1988.

Later in that decade, emission control regulation had a major effect on improving the cities air quality. The banning of backyard incinerators in 1987, together with the closure of two local coal fired power stations in 1986 and a 50% decrease in lead levels found in petrol, resulted in a lowering of pollution levels.

[edit] Brisbane's historical timeline

1770 Capt. James Cook sails up Queensland coast with botanist Joseph Banks; names Cape Moreton, Point Lookout and Glass House Mountains. Takes possession of eastern Australia, naming it New South Wales.
1799 Capt. Matthew Flinders explores Moreton and Hervey bays; names Red Cliff Point (now Redcliffe), Pumice-stone River (now Pumicestone Passage). Also lands on Coochiemudlo Island.
1823 Emancipated convicts John Finnegan, Richard Parsons and Thomas Pamphlett shipwrecked off Moreton Is while looking for timber (a fourth person, John Thomson, died at sea). Following a quarrel, Parsons continues north while others stay on the island.
1823 Surveyor-general John Oxley arrives at Bribie Island to evaluate Moreton Bay as a site for penal settlement. Discovers Finnegan and Pamphlett who guide him to the Brisbane River; names Peel Island, Pine River and Deception Bay.
1824 Oxley discovers Parsons and returns him to Sydney.
1824 First commandant Lt. Henry Miller arrives at Red Cliffe Pt from Sydney with soldiers, a storekeeper and their families, John Oxley, botanist Allan Cunningham, stock and seeds.
1824 First settler born in colony named Amity Moreton Thompson.
1825 Shipping channel via South Passage found; settlement moves to Brisbane River; first convict buildings built along William St.
1825 Edmund Lockyer of 57th Regiment explores Brisbane River. Notes flood debris 100 feet above river levels at Mount Crosby, finds first coal deposits. Names Redbank after soil colour.
1826 Capt. Patrick Logan takes over as commandant of colony. Achieves extensive stone building program using convict labour. Discovers Southport bar and Logan River
1827 Allan Cunningham leaves Hunter Valley to seek link via New England Tableland to Darling Downs.
1827 Indigenous resistance leader "Napoleon" exiled to St Helena Island. Aborigines raid maize plots, resist advances. Frequent conflict until 1840s.
1828 Cunningham discovers gap in Great Dividing Range, providing access from Moreton Bay to Darling Downs. Also explores Esk-Lockyer basin and upper Brisbane Valley in 1829.
1829 Moreton Bay Aborigines seriously affected by smallpox.
1830 Capt. Logan mysteriously murdered near Esk, commemorated in folk song Convict's Lament.
1831 Moreton Bay settlement population reaches 1241, including 1066 convicts.
1833 Ship Stirling Castle wrecked on Swain Reef; first of many ships to wreck on Queensland coast over next 40 years.
1836 Quaker missionaries report Moreton Bay Indigenous population infected with venereal disease from American whalers.
1837 Brisbane's pioneering Petrie family arrives in Moreton Bay. Andrew Petrie (builder and stonemason) is clerk of government works; stays on with wife Mary and five children after penal settlement closes. Son John Petrie becomes Brisbane's first mayor; other son Tom writes sympathetically about local Indigenous people.
1839 Calls to cease convict transportation successful; Moreton Bay is closed as a penal settlement. 2062 men and 150 women served sentences at the settlement, half of them being Irish; 10 percent died, 700 fled, 98 never recaptured.
1840 Escaped convict John Baker surrenders after 14 years of living with Indigenous Australians.
1841 Indigenous people Merridio and Neugavil are executed at Wickham Terrace windmill for the murder of surveyor Stapylton and his assistant in Logan.
1842 New South Welsh Governor George Gipps proclaims Moreton Bay a free settlement. Land is offered for sale from Sydney.
1846 Squatter and entrepreneur Evan Mackenzie succeeds in making Brisbane a port independent from Sydney.
1846 Recorded population of Moreton Bay area is 4000 Aborigines and 2257 migrants.
1848 First 240 government-assisted British migrants arrive in Brisbane. First Chinese labourers arrive.
1849 Rev Dr J.D. Lang, local clergyman and journalist, brings his first English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish migrants with unauthorised promise of land grants. Government rations issued to prevent starvation. Lang envisages a colony of self-sufficient, thrifty and hard-working farmers, workers and artisans.
1849 Brisbane School of Arts established.
1849 William Pettigrew arrives in colony. He later becomes the mayor of Brisbane in 1870 and is a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly between 1877-94.
1850 Areas beyond inner Brisbane suburbs, such as Bulimba, Coorparoo, Enoggera, Nundah, Sherwood and Stafford are used for agriculture and grazing until the 1880s.
1850 Displaced Aborigines from Bribie Island, Redcliffe peninsula and Wide Bay make gunyah camps in Breakfast Creek/Eagle Farm region (until 1860s).
1850 Arthur Lyon sends sample of cotton from New Farm to The Great Exhibition in London.
1851 Influenza epidemic hits Brisbane (lasting in 1852).
1855 Nearly 1000 German migrants arrive in Brisbane after political unrest and the introduction of compulsory military training; most settle in the Nundah area.
1862 Old Government House is completed.
1866 11 September, food riots that were instigated by the recently retrenched workers.^[3]
1867 Parliament House opens.
1885 Horse drawn tram system commences operation.
1893 Brisbane floods.
1897 Electric trams introduced.
1899 Queensland Museum leaves the old State Library Building to move into "Exhibition Hall" (later called the Old Museum), at Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills.
1901 Celebrations held to mark Federation, on New Year's Day.
1901 Fire alarms and pillar hydrants introduced to Brisbane city streets.
1902 Central Railway Station in Ann Street, Brisbane completed.
1902 Brisbane officially designated city status by the Government of Queensland.
1909 Government House opens at Bardon
1909 University of Queensland opens near Parliament House.
1922 Queensland Government purchases privately owned tram system and establishes the Brisbane Tramways Trust.
1925 Amalgamation of 25 local government areas to form the City of Greater Brisbane.
1925 Queensland Government transfers responsibility for the tram system from the Brisbane Tramways Trust to the Brisbane City Council.
1927 Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary founded
1928 Sir Charles Kingsford Smith lands in Brisbane, from San Francisco, USA, after the first flight across the Pacific Ocean.
1930 Brisbane City Hall opened.
1939 Forgan Smith building completed at the St. Lucia campus of the University of Queensland. (Forgan Smith building was named after the, then, Premier of Queensland)
1942 General Douglas MacArthur arrives in Brisbane and takes offices in the AMP building (later called MacArthur Central) for the Pacific campaign during World War II
1946 Following a delay caused by World War II the University of Queensland began its move from George Street, Brisbane, to its St Lucia campus, which it completed in 1972
1964 Adoption of first Brisbane Town Plan
1965 Queensland Institute of Technology (later Queensland University of Technology) established
1968 Brisbane City Council announces conversion of tram and trolley-bus systems to all-bus operations
1969 Tram and trolley bus systems close, new Victoria Bridge opened
1974 Brisbane River flooding, the result of continual heavy rain from "Cyclone Wanda", causes major damage across city
1982 Commonwealth Games
1984 Queensland Performing Arts Centre opened at the Queensland Cultural Centre
1986 Queensland Museum moves to the Queensland Cultural Centre
1986 Tennyson and Bulimba coal-fired power station closed down
1988 State Library of Queensland leaves the old State Library Building to move to the Queensland Cultural Centre
1988 Expo 88 held at reclaimed industrial land at South Brisbane
1989 Queensland Institute of Technology changed status to Queensland University of Technology. (The decision to upgrade the QIT to a University in it own right was a result of the high quality and excellence of the teaching and research within the QIT, and was taken prior to the Dawkins reforms)
1991 International Convention of Lions Clubs International
2001 CHOGM conference, scheduled for Brisbane, but postponed after heightened security concerns resulting from terrorist attacks on New York City. Instead it was held in Coolum in early 2002
2001 Goodwill Games
2002 7th annual conference of the World Wide Web Consortium
2003 International Convention of Rotary International

[edit] References

^ Oz at War (1)
^ Oz at War (2)
^ Evans, Raymond (2007). A History of Queensland. Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press, 85. ISBN 9780521876926.

Our Queensland: The Great Unknown Comprehensive local newspaper outline of regional history.
J.R. Cole, Shaping a City: Greater Brisbane 1925-1985, Brisbane 1984
G. Greenwood and J. Laverty, Brisbane 1859-1959, BCC, 1959

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