Our Brisbane History

Pic:Jubilee Postcard 1908

Fifty Years On

Brisbane's Jubilee

The first European settlement at Moreton Bay was established at Redcliffe in 1824, when convicts under the direction of Lieutenant Miller arrived from Sydney. Only thirty-five years later, Brisbane was proclaimed a municipality and the Sate of Queensland was created. There followed a period of development, at times quite rapid, so that in 1909 the proud civic fathers of Brisbane were able to celebrate the Julibee of the City and justifiably boast of the progress that had been made in such a short time.

At the time of separation in 1859, Brisbane was a straggling colonial town, with slab huts, tents, rough hostelries and shanties interspersed with a few brick buildings and the remnants of the convict era, the Commissariat Stores, the Prisoners Barracks and the Mill. Streets were unsealed, there was no sanitation, noxious industries such as tanneries and boiling-down works were poorly regulated and there was no bridge across the river. The population at the time was around 5,000.

By 1909 Brisbane had been transformed. It was an Edwardian city boasting a water supply and fire protection, public transport systems, lighting and power, building by-laws, and all the other developments that were thought to indicate civic and commercial development. Queen Street and George Street, the commercial and administrative hubs of the city were lined with impressive buildings. Panoramic photographs of the period taken from Wickham.

Terrace show the central business district beginning to push upwards wit may commercial buildings of four and five storeys. They also show the extensive wharves on the southern side of the river and the thriving development in South Brisbane which had been, for many years, in fierce competition with the separate municipality across the bridge. What could not be seen in the panorama were the villas of the well to do which stretched alone the ridges from Bowen Hills to Teneriffe and from Milton to Bardon, or the densely crowded workers suburbs of Spring Hill, Fortitude Valley and Paddington.

By 1909 the population of the metropolitan area was 137,670. this spread over some twenty local government areas. Another fifteen years would elapse before all of these areas would from part of the Greater Brisbane Municipality.

A tangible memorial of the State's Jubilee was the founding of the University of Queensland. It was established at Gardens Point in buildings which included Government House. A new residence for the Governor, 'Fernberg', was purchased at Bardon.