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Brisbane
KNOWLEDGE OF Brisbane
Contrary to common perception, Brisbane is very much a river city, where life developed, and still pivots, on the Brisbane River. Today, Brisbane can lay claim to being 'beautiful one day, perfect the next'. However, life was not always so heavenly for the first settlers.
The cat-o-nine-tails ruled and mosquitoes plagued the very first settlers in the Brisbane area. In 1824, the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the coast at Redcliffe but, after three months, a new site 20 kilometres up the Brisbane River (now called North Quay) was chosen. The reliable water supply made this a perfect place to establish a penal colony, not to mention the security provided by its upstream position on a natural bend in the river.
In 1828, with only ten cottages in the settlement, hundreds of convicts started to build the first stone buildings: The Colonial Stores Building, and an Old Windmill (now known as the Wickham Terrace Observatory Tower).
This convict time ended in 1839 and, in 1841, Brisbane began again in three separate settlements--North Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane. A long battle for funds from the then Governor in Sydney, Sir George Gipps, commenced. In 1846, there were less than a thousand people living in these three areas.
Eventually, a separate colony, Queensland, began in 1859; its name being in honour of the Queen of England at the time, Queen Victoria. The Moreton Bay settlement became the capital, as it was now a thriving port and commercial centre of six thousand people. There were still financial problems. When the first Governor of the new colony, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, commenced office, he found seven and a halfpence in the Treasury!
Brisbane began to flourish and, by 1888, the main thoroughfare, Queen Street, sported some large well-designed buildings, many of which are still here today (or the façades at least). George Street boasts Parliament House and the Queensland Club, still used by country politicians and public servants as a city base. The City Botanic Gardens is the site of the original gardens that provided food for the convict settlement. Today, many rare native and exotic plants thrive here in the sub-tropical climate beside the river.
In the 1890s, a series of disastrous floods and more financial worries beset the city, but the city fought back and again prospered.
The cat-o-nine-tails ruled and mosquitoes plagued the very first settlers in the Brisbane area. In 1824, the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the coast at Redcliffe but, after three months, a new site 20 kilometres up the Brisbane River (now called North Quay) was chosen. The reliable water supply made this a perfect place to establish a penal colony, not to mention the security provided by its upstream position on a natural bend in the river.
In 1828, with only ten cottages in the settlement, hundreds of convicts started to build the first stone buildings: The Colonial Stores Building, and an Old Windmill (now known as the Wickham Terrace Observatory Tower).
This convict time ended in 1839 and, in 1841, Brisbane began again in three separate settlements--North Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane. A long battle for funds from the then Governor in Sydney, Sir George Gipps, commenced. In 1846, there were less than a thousand people living in these three areas.
Eventually, a separate colony, Queensland, began in 1859; its name being in honour of the Queen of England at the time, Queen Victoria. The Moreton Bay settlement became the capital, as it was now a thriving port and commercial centre of six thousand people. There were still financial problems. When the first Governor of the new colony, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, commenced office, he found seven and a halfpence in the Treasury!
Brisbane began to flourish and, by 1888, the main thoroughfare, Queen Street, sported some large well-designed buildings, many of which are still here today (or the façades at least). George Street boasts Parliament House and the Queensland Club, still used by country politicians and public servants as a city base. The City Botanic Gardens is the site of the original gardens that provided food for the convict settlement. Today, many rare native and exotic plants thrive here in the sub-tropical climate beside the river.
In the 1890s, a series of disastrous floods and more financial worries beset the city, but the city fought back and again prospered.
Chapi