Re: Main Street from Stanley Street, Woolloongabba 1973. (BCC images)
Trish M. It was a shame they left a little bit of the old Dental Hospital fence there when they last built on the site, but it got knocked down this time. It was up near the Vulture St corner. The Dental Hospital can be seen in the middle of this photo.
Anna G.1 0 years early … in the corner shop Stanley & Main Sts you could buy a bag of lollies for 3 pence and there was a Fire Station as well near the Vulture St corner.
Geoff R. to Anna G: There was also a great fish and chip shop there and you could get 6 pence worth of chips covered in salt and wrapped in newspaper. The great health food we had in those days! If you were lucky you could get a Tristrams soft drink as well, total cost a shilling. On the trolley bus and home.
Geoff R. Beautiful memories and probably the best place to grow in Brisbane, so many different things to experience in that area . The first KFC , the first coin petrol pump up at Shafton and Main.The first car wash along Main St.They didn’t charge school kids to watch the cricket after the tea break so you sat under the old score board with your mates, grabbed a pie and peas or a Have a Heart.
Christa G. wonderful childhood memories of a more relaxed time when you could let kids go out and explore freely!
Serge B. There was a hardware store that was open occasionally that was run by an American. It was between Les Goodes Newsagency and the Fire station/Dental Hospital.
Anna G. Yes! My dad liked that store also 🙂
Serge B. Had interesting stuff in it from time to time.
Anna G. My Slovak father became a ‘bower-bird’ in places like this – picking up useful items for ongoing home renovation tasks.
Serge B. Anna, he must have know my Russian bower bird father, George. He ended up with so much stuff, he opened a store at 747 Stanley Street, JWB Radio and musical.
Anna G. Most likely as Vasyl walked these streets and spoke with everyone, usually in a bit of their native tongue! My sister loved the ‘saw sharpening’ aspect and was Dad’s helper.
Serge that store’s ringing a memory bell! 🙂
Serge G. Anna, It’s a whole with a carpark in it now, used to be bunched between banks. 3 doors up from the old Gabba post office.
Geoff R. One of my closest friends father was the Manager of NAB, he lived in the residence on the first floor of the bank.
Serge G. Geoff, where was NAB? I remember CBA, became Westpac, ES&A became ANZ or NAB??
Geoff R. l may be wrong about the name of the bank. It was up near the Post Office and it had a laneway beside it which gave you access to the back of the bank and the place next door. It was 60 years ago so the memory is a bit hazy.
Serge G. Geoff, you have a good memory. Post office, Bank, another bank, laneway, two story building 747 Stanley, another bank, Pub, Reid Street. Laneway serviced all the banks for their backdoors.
Geoff R. I first started walking down Stanley St to buy a bag of fish skeletons from the fish markets for crab pots when I was about 8. 6 pence a bag I think and then through the tunnel under Vulture St to the Coal Wharves to start our grabbing run which ended up at Evans Deakin.Good
Days great crabs and lots of catfish.
Marie A. Serge, my father worked in that shop after school it had everything , what was the name of the shop ?
Serge G. Don’t think it was JWB Musical at 747 Stanley. I was there most days. Hardware Store in Main Street I don’t recall.
Stewart B. the hardware store was owned by Freddie Paluso, he got started selling war surplus from WWII ; under his house was still crammed with hardware 30 years later.
Geoff R. Exceptional as usual. Old fellows like me never die we just smell that way.
Serge B. Was that your store, Geoff?
Geoff R. Unfortunately no, Serge. I was just a young fella that grew up in that area 65 years ago.
Serge B. So was I.
Shane M. The newsagency on the left where I worked after school from the age of 8 until 12. I started in 74, so it looked exactly like this. Used to sell papers in the traffic and pubs and Best Bets at the Gabba Dogs on Thursday night
Serge B. was Les Goodes newsagency from memory.
Mark P. The Road to the Left was the Rail line Entrance into the old Gabba Rail Yard.
Re: Morning Rush hour Shafston Road to Story Bridge 1994.
Peter C. The sign is at the crossing of Ferry Street and Main Street.
Mark U. Can anyone tell me if the shop behind was a corner store? I think I can make out Tristrams and Peter’s signs.
Geoff R. Yes, there was a store there, and I did have a Tristrams on the way home from school. Actually, I think there were 3 shops thre and one may have been a butcher. My memory is hazy as it was the better part of 60 years ago.
Geoff R. I think those shops were demolished when they built the motel, late 50’s or early 60’s. There was a trolley bus stop just down Main Street a bit from the crossing.
Leone E. I can also see the Peters and Tristram signage at the shops on the right hand side of the photo.
Jeff W. love this pic, Mt Olivet in the background now called St Vincent’s. The shops are on the corner of Main St and Pixley St. Pixley is an L shaped street that connects with Thornton. The Palm Tree on footpath partially behind the post of the sign was still there in the 1980s as far as I recall. Also the garden wall with gateway which from memory was brick with concrete gateway was still there into the 1980s,
In 1961 a ground-level motel opened on the ridge behind where the shops are (not sure if they were demolished then or later like second time around) part of the motel was the 3-storey building that still exists beside the river. Where the wall is was 355 Main Street. The motel entrance was off Pixley. The ridge level part faced Main on one side and Pixley on the other two sides at the first motel time.
Later in the 1960s Trust House Aust Pty Ltd (Travelodge) purchased the motel and demolished the ridge section along Pixley and built the 5 or 6 storey building that as far as I’m aware is still there today. It opened in 1968. When they built it they had to build a walkway above Pixley St from the first or second floor to the riverside building for access to the rooms and restaurant. The shops and the wall back onto a ridge. The driveway to the main entrance was off Pixley St just behind the former shops. Cars could park on the Pixley side and in front above that wall. When one drove up to the main undercover entrance one could either turn left along a lane on the northern side of Pixley or turn right to the small car park above the wall. Not sure now, but think there may have been another exit into Main past the photographer.
Interesting that the pic may have been a community road safety advice, perhaps the photographer should have waited till the J-walker had done his thing!
Mark U. That looks like the 8-8:30am rush hour in 1994, after the Clem 7 tunnel was put in you could easily get across before 7:30-45am, but by mid 2010’s it was back to as you see in this 1994 picture. Ironically Covid19 made the Story Bridge rush hour crossing a breeze at anytime, and though the traffic is slowly picked up again it’s still not like 1994 when I go past (on my bike!?.)
Paul B. Every time I go over the Story Bridge I always think that Mr Bradfield had great vision to design a bridge still serving its purpose over 80 years later.
Darragh Street in the early years
Photo 1: 13 March 1890 during the floods.
Photo 2: October 1935 showing construction of footpaths and kerbs. The forms have just been laid and workmen are discussing the construction of a retaining wall on an adjacent home.
Photo 3: 1936 A horse and cart are travelling along the completed road at a leisurely pace.