Convicts & Colonials: Architecture

In Britain, the Georgian architectural style was coming to an end by the time the first colonial era buildings were being constructed in Ipswich. Whilst Ipswich has become well known for its Victorian and Federation character homes, the Georgian influence can still be seen in the existing buildings of this period.

The Georgian style took its inspiration from Renaissance architecture, which in turn had its roots in Imperial Rome. Order is at the heart of this classical style, with all parts of the building harmonising visually with one another and with the whole.  This could be achieved through proportion, human scale, rectangular and prismatic shapes, and symmetrical façades.    

During the later part of this era, availability, quality, and trends in building materials were changing. Roofing slates replaced the flammable timber shingle; corrugated iron replaced slates, popularising the bull-nosed verandah roof.  Timber buildings would continue to dominate the Ipswich streetscape, with local brickworks beginning to provide bricks for more substantial dwellings and commercial premises. Glass panes were larger, replacing twelve-pane windows with two-pains per sash or single glazed sheets.   

Erected c.1860, Liberty Hall - Mary Tregear Hostel is a two-story domestic example of the Georgian style.  The c.1857 Claremont demonstrates a climatic adaption of the style, with the addition of verandahs on the eastern, northern, and western sides, protecting the inner-rooms from the hot sun and providing an additional, functional, shaded space.  The 1859 Old Court House boasts a Romanesque-inspired façade with Georgian proportions.

However, for most of Ipswich's colonial-era structures, a simpler construction was employed, one which utilised locally sourced materials and responded to the unfamiliar and hostile-seeming environment.  The sun was hotter and brighter than what they had experienced back in England. The rain, if it came, could be torrential and fierce with wind, thunder, and lightning. Trees were tough to cut, and once cut, the timber was at the mercy of bugs and rot.  Lime for mortar was in limited supply.  Vernacular architectural styles of log and sapling, slab and bark, wattle and daub, and the Australian innovation of drop-log construction, met the 'make do' needs of the early colonials.   

Leslie, Russell and party greeted at Limestone by George Thorn, on their way to Brisbane. Illustration by Nanette Dingle.

The Empire in 1855 carried an article about Moreton Bay that compared Brisbane and Ipswich. 

It is a great disadvantage to Ipswich that nearly all visitors to it see Brisbane first, and cannot avoid comparing the two towns. As once the head-quarters of a penal establishment, Brisbane possesses some substantial Government buildings erected by convict labour, Ipswich has enjoyed no such advantage. The buildings that have been put up at Government expense for public purposes are small and unsubstantial. A mean looking weather-board building, such as would be used as a third-rate store, serves a double purpose, one room being the Crown lands' office, and the other a police court that would be inconveniently crowded with thirty people. A slab shed in the yard apologises for a lock-up. With the exception of one or two public-houses and stores, nearly all the buildings are of wood and but of one floor; and many are irregular and shabby. The storekeepers do not seem disposed to devote the profits of their business to putting up substantial houses. The one or two exceptions to this state of things, such as the fine stone store just finished for Mr. Panton, and one or two private house snow in building on an adjacent hill, present a glaring contrast to the mass of low timber structures composing the town. The condition of the town is, however, in this respect what might be expected from its comparatively recent settlement, and from its neglect on the part of the Government. The principal street, Brisbane-street, is far from being an uninterrupted succession of buildings; the shop windows do not present any array of tempting fineries, and the only display of wares is that of articles of apparel or of domestic use in the verandahs of the stores. The character of the traffic altogether seems suited to the rough and ready style of the bulk of the bush customers.