Cunningham's Knoll

This knoll on the easterly entrance to central Ipswich, forms the northwesterly extremity of one of two north - northwest / south – southeast trending spine ridges of Tertiary silicified and agatised magnesian limestone known to contain freshwater gastropod fossils. It was the exploitation of this limestone which led to the development of Ipswich. The knoll is on land which was part of the original Botanical Gardens and Recreation Grounds deeded to private Trustees in 1862, which subsequently came under the control of the Ipswich City Council. It now contains a number of memorials.

The oldest on the site is a hummock, plaqued by the Ipswich Historical Society. The plaque states: 'In 1827 Captain Patrick Logan, Commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement sent an overseer and five convicts to quarry limestone at this site. The limestone was forwarded to Brisbane in small boats for use in erecting buildings at that settlement'. The hummock is clearly visible in a circa 1910 picture in Jubilee History of Ipswich, p35, and appears to be almost completely covered presently.

Another memorial stands to the explorer and botanist Allan Cunningham. The cairn bears a tapered plaque which reads: 'to perpetuate the memory of the explorer Allan Cunningham who camped under these fig trees in the year 1828'. After an initial discovery of a gap leading to the Darling Downs in 1827, Cunningham set out with others from Brisbane on July 24, 1828, to travel via the Logan River for further investigation. Cunningham and part of the party pitched tents at the fledgling Limestone Station on the Bremer River in August for five days, and went on to succeed in relocating the gap which now bears his name.

Depression Era Changes
A stone wall was erected around the knoll which then curved to the rear of Ipswich Girl’s Grammar School. A road was constructed around the knoll which led to a path, a dozen wide steps and seating at the summit. The road was flanked with trees and flower beds. The two cairns present were designed to harmonise with the other beautification programmes and constructed from “rugged flint stone”. They were 11 feet, 5 and a half inches high, and the first built bears a tablet with the inscription “To Perpetuate the memory of Explorer Allan Cunningham, who camped under these fig trees in the year 1828. Cunningham did not camp there but did pass through on his visits to Ipswich in the 1820s. The Cunningham monument was unveiled in 1934 and is situated on the northwest side of the ziggurat, beside the path that leads to the top of the knoll.

The second memorial, on the northeast side, is identical in design to Cunningham's and is dedicated to Thomas Glassey, an industrial and social reformer, the first Labor member of Queensland Parliament and the member for Bundamba, elected in 1888.  He was Senator in the first Australian Parliament, from 1901-1903.