Category: East Brisbane

An East Brisbane State School student reminisces about watching cricket at the Gabba
“…I liked it better in the higher grades as we then had male teachers. When we finished our sums on Fridays we were allowed to join them on the veranda to watch the cricket at the Gabba grounds. Guess who became very good at maths! But I could never beat the Russian kids who excelled in everything even though they didn’t like cricket. I could never figure that out.

We had a private entrance to the cricket ground through a hole in the fence behind the toilet. We hunted autographs and were allowed on the field with the players at the end of the day’s play.”

Excerpt from ‘Remembering’ by Rita Zoch, in Looking Around – an anthology of articles and stories about East Brisbane in 1990. Gerry Stiller (ed)

“Tram traffic on the Balmoral line was dislocated for an hour and a half at a particularly busy period when a dreadnought model jumped the rails at the bend at Latrobe Street and Lytton Road, East Brisbane.  About 13 or more trams soon piled up behind it as gangs made several attempts to put it back on the rails. However, because of the curve many attempts proved futile. Eventually the car was returned to the terminus. ” (The Telegraph, 18 December 1937)

Students from East Brisbane State School getting some cricket tips from J. Farquhar at the Brisbane Cricket Ground  (Gabba) next to the school in 1933. John Farquhar (1887-1977) was a highly-regarded cricketer who played 16 first-class matches for Queensland between 1913 and 1927. (The Courier Mail, 6 October 1933)

The photo shows a young schoolboy being vaccinated for diptheria at the East Brisbane State School in 1940. He was one of 150 children immunised by the City Medical Officer of Health, Dr. R. Weaver. ( Courier Mail, 6 March 1940).

At the height of the 1921 diptheria epidemic, there were 23,199 notifications (annual notification rate of 4.265 per 100,000 population, and in the decade between 1926 and 1935 there were 4,043 deaths from diptheria. (www1.health.gov)

School-based diptheria vaccination programs began in Australia in the early 1930s. Routine childhood vaccination virtually eliminated diptheria in most industrialised countries.

This advertisement has some fascinating information about the early development of East Brisbane. The claims made for the area apply equally today, except the means of transport differ. “Handy to the city by tram or ferry” – the Mowbray Park ferry service started in 1917 – see below.

The Mowbray Park ferry service began in 1917. This news item from the Brisbane Courier, 20 January 1917, describes the pre-service trial run.

The benefits of green spaces and public gardens is beautifully described in this article from The Brisbane Courier of 26 September 1929.

 

 

A very unhappy judge in 1907!  How would this be treated today?

Not only did he have two small boys playing truant and spending the morning sitting in the front row listening to the evidence about an assault in Mowbray Park, but he had WOMEN in his court room! Whatever next!

 

 

 

 

Picture this scene: It is February 1924 in East Brisbane.

A horse and cart is going on its rounds delivering butter, trotting along Shafston Avenue, near the Mowbray Park end, what was then the horse ferry.   The driver stops to get off, but for some reason the horse bolts and charges into an advertising sign. One of the shafts breaks on the cart and the driver has to hang on. He’s dragged along for about 400 yards. Finally he can’t hang on any longer and is thrown onto the road on his back! Luckily he was not seriously injured and the horse was merely stunned!

 

 

How things change! A view of the corner of Elfin and Latrobe Streets in the 1920 showing typical  wooden houses and tram tracks – Cr Elfin & Latrobe Sts.

A very different street view in 2018 – the tram tracks have gone, the roads are paved with clear lane markings.

It seems that ladies have been making things for fetes for many years. This news item from 1939 describes a fete (fair) in the grounds of the Mowbraytown Presbyterian Church to raise funds for the mission. The theme for the stalls is rather interesting: the weekly duties of housewives at the time. Specific specific tasks were allocated to each day from Monday to Saturday : washing, mending, baking, fancywork, sweets and market. Presumably Sunday was set aside for church.