Hello and welcome

Brisbane History West is a collaborative resource set up to provide an internet presence for the history groups in the inner south western suburbs that don’t have their own dedicated website.  Its purpose  is to supplement existing activities and encourage community awareness and participation in the study and recording of local history.

Each of the groups focus on specific geographical areas which jointly cover the present day suburbs of Chelmer, Corinda, Graceville, Indooroopilly, Oxley, St Lucia, Sherwood and Taringa. Arbitrary boundaries aside, with some subtle variations the area shares a common history.

If you are unfamiliar with the blog format this Home page has all the articles uploaded to date in chronological order. Each has been categorised so if you are looking to minimise scrolling click on the relevant Topic (right hand side margin for PC users). The articles are a mix of frequently asked questions, meeting notices, research notes and papers,  and general news items.

Please feel free to contact us if you are working on a project and are wondering how to share your research effort, contributions are welcome. The site is self-funded and supported by the participating groups and societies which rely solely on volunteer resources. The individual groups retain their independence.

The publication Brisbane Spreads West– A local history 1840 to 1901 is the combined work of a number of local groups and societies, drawing on their research of the history of the western and south western suburbs of Brisbane. It is available from the participating groups or from the State Library Book Shop

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Moggill Historical Society June Meeting

7pm Tuesday  18 June 2019 at the Media Room, Moggill State School. This month John Ness will give a talk on Pullen Pullen Catchment Group (PPCG) activities. The talk will give an overview of what the PPCG has done, what has been learnt and the ongoing challenges to try to retain the flora and fauna of the Pullenvale/Anstead/ Moggill district.

The concept of setting up volunteer catchment groups started in the 1990s with funding supplied from the Australian Government via local councils. PPCG, established in 1998, is perhaps the most rural of the Brisbane groups based around creeks such as Moggill, Oxley, Cubberla, Norman, Breakfast etc. Since then, PPCG has mainly worked to restore and revegetate BCC parks along Pullen Pullen creek and at Anstead and Moggill.

John Ness is the president of the PPCG and joined the organisation a year or so after it was established and has had various roles on the PPCG committee. His day job is in electronic engineering but over the years he has come to appreciate the role that trees have in maintaining terrestrial life and providing an optimum environment for humans.

A tea break will be followed by the MHS AGM.

For further details contact Bobby Vollmer secretary@moggillhistorical.org.au

Toowong History Group June Meeting

7pm Wednesday 19 June 2019 at the Toowong Community Centre, Josling Street, Toowong. This month Peter Brown will give a talk on Lang Farm which was established by Robert Cribb following his purchase of land on Toowong Creek when it was first released for freehold sale in the early 1850s. All welcome. For further details contact marilyn.england@bigpond.com

 

A Taringa Childhood

Mid 1950s view from the southern end of Manchester Terrace overlooking Moggill Road and its intersection with Musgrave Road. Today’s outlook from the same position is now dominated by the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre
(Walter Marggraf)

Much has changed in the neighbourhood Eric Marggraf grew up in in the 1930s and 40s.

In Wounded in the trenches Eric presents his early childhood memories of Taringa and beyond. Starting with the Manchester Terrace environs, the family home was No 62, his horizons gradually extended to include the Princess Street home of his paternal grandparents, and Taringa State School where he was enrolled in 1935. Then he got ‘wheels’ and his adventuring extended along Moggill Road, from Toowong to Brookfield, and over the Indooroopilly Bridge out to Chelmer and Graceville.

As with his description of the Victory Picture Theatre, Eric demonstrates his builder’s eye for detail and provides us with a snapshot of some of the characters and businesses operating in Taringa Village and beyond. From the early days of European settlement Taringa had been a commercial and social hub for the local community, and the seat of local government until 1925.

Eric’s contemporaries will recognise this glimpse into everyday life, many aspects typical of a Brisbane suburban upbringing of the times, a period when being home for meals, and in before dark set your boundaries.

Indooroopilly Library – old photo dating and preservation

11am Saturday 16 June 2019 at the Library. Do you want to find out what clues are in your old photographs to help you identify them and learn how to care for these treasures – the correct storage, digitisation, handling, repair ? Indooroopilly Library is hosting a workshop Dating old photos and caring for them to be presented by the Genealogical Society of Queensland. For further details telephone 3407 0009

Oxley-Chelmer History Group June Meeting

9.30am Friday 14 June 2019 at the Sherwood-Indooroopilly RSL Sub-Branch, Clewley Street, Corinda. Each month we have a presentation and discussion on some aspect of the history of the suburbs of Oxley, Corinda, Sherwood, Graceville and Chelmer.      For further details please contact Marion on 3379 1967 or ochginc@gmail.com

Richlands, Inala & Suburbs History Group June Meeting

9.30 for 10am Tuesday 11 June 2019 at the Meeting Room, BCC Inala Library, Inala Civic Centre, Inala. For further details contact secretary@rihghistory.org.au

Taringa History Group June Meeting

3pm Saturday 1 June 2019 at the Toowong Community Meeting Place, Josling Street, Toowong. This month we will take a look at the Corley Collection currently featured at the State Library of Queensland.  Frank and Eunice Corley took photographs of Brisbane’s suburban residential properties in the 1960s/70s and offered them for sale to the householders. For further information contact Bruce Sinclair burrowes@gil.com.au