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Convicts & Colonials (1827-1859)
Early explorers
In 1823, John Oxley explored the Brisbane River travelling as far as Goodna. The following year Oxley returned, accompanied by Allan Cunningham and Lieutenant Butler and they travelled in two boats to explore the Brisbane River further. Oxley and Cunningham both noted a creek or stream that branched off the Brisbane River which Oxley referred to as Bremer River. The site had a number of advantages, including the fact that moderate sixed boats could travel up the Bremer as far as the limestone deposits, and near the lime deposits there was a large natural basin in the river where boats could turn or anchor. Another important fact, was that beds of coal had been noticed along the nearby river banks. Cunningham saw the potential of the site, possibly as an inland port that could handle produce from the interior and he predicted: "It is therefore highly probable that upon the site of these Limestone Hills, a town will one day be raised."
Limestone Station
It was not until either late 1826 or early 1827, that Patrick Logan set out to explore the Bremer River, reaching the white hummocks (limestone hills) on the riverbank. He returned on 7 June 1827, sending the boat back to Brisbane Town while he set out on foot for another expedition. There is no indication of whether or not the convict out-station was operating at that time. It is likely that in the latter half of 1827, Logan sent an overseer and five convicts to start an out-station to quarry the limestone. Not long after the Limestone Station was established, Logan had a farm, sheep and cattle station set up. The Plough Station was located within the current boundaries of Cascade Street, Raceview Street and Robertson Road.
Townships
In March 1842, His Excellency Sir George Gipps travelled to Moreton Bay aboard the Shamrock. On this trip, he selected sites for townships - Brisbane, Cleveland, Red Bank and Limestone.
The New South Wales Examiner of 6 April 1842 reported:
Red Bank is at present merely a stockade station. It is distant about twenty miles from Brisbane, but by the river nearly double that distance; the soil is rich, the herbage beautiful, and the country around lightly timbered.
Limestone is about thirty miles by land, and fifty by water, from Brisbane. Steamers of a large class can proceed as far as this place. It is situated in one of the most fertile and beautiful districts in the colony, on the banks of the Bremer, a tributary of the Brisbane, which it joins about fourteen miles below the township. The Bremer is a fine fresh water stream, and navigable for steamers a sort way above Limestone. The Brisbane is supposed to be navigable for vessels of large burden, upwards of 100 miles from the Bay.
The land in the neighbourhood of the Bremer is represented as being of an exceedingly rich alluvial description, and, beyond the banks, of the very richest quality, and fit to produce the finest crops of either wheat or maize; the land has been known to yield twenty-five bushels per acre, without a single shower having fallen from the time the seed was sown until the wheat was reaped.
Ipswich in the 1850s
When you look at the city area today, it is hard to imagine that Ipswich must have been like a country village. If you could go back in time, a number of things would strike you as different or unusual. Early European and non-European people began to arrive in 1842 and for the first few years, there were few residents and fewer officials. Many ticket-of leave convicts settled in Moreton Bay and in Ipswich.
In the 1850s, almost everyone in Ipswich used water from the Bremer River for drinking, cooking and washing. Some people probably collected their own supply but most relied on the water carriers or "water joeys" who took water from the river in carts and sold it around the streets. The inner city is now strictly a place for shopping and business but back in the 1840s, 50s and 60s, many people lived there. Transport was difficult and slow so it made sense to live close to where you worked. Some people had a small house attached to the side or back of their shop while others had two-storey buildings with the shop on the ground floor and a residence above it. People other than shopkeepers also lived in the city area for convenience.
Many animals could be in seen in the streets of Ipswich. Horses were probably the most common, either being ridden or pulling carts and sulkies. There were also many teams of bullocks which were used to pull heavy loads, usually on two-wheel wagons. The streets were dirt, not bitumen, and clouds of dust drifted into shops, particularly as the dust would have contained particles of manure left on the streets. Water carts pulled by horses were used to wet the streets and try to reduce the dust problem. People also kept animals at homes. Horses again were common. If horses were going to be used for transport, they had to be kept close by and that usually meant in the back yard or adjacent block of land.
Dr. Henry Challinor lived on the corner of Nicholas and Limestone streets, where the Civic Centre is today, and he kept dairy cows and even a bull. On one famous occasion, the water carrier King John (William Burr) was striding about in the Pump Yard opposite the doctor's house when the bull got loose and charged him. The water pump was wrecked, King John ended up in the waterhole and the doctor got a large bill for damages.
On Limestone Hill, goats were common, they became such a nuisance as they wandered around that most of them were rounded up by the local police in the 1850s and slaughtered. Ipswich people remembered eating the meat which they jokingly called 'venison'. The busiest area was near the wharves at the end of Nicholas, East and Wharf streets where paddle steamers pulled up to unload passengers and goods.
The Moreton Bay Courier on 12 September 1857 advised that:
The Geelong of Brisbane is Ipswich, and between these two towns the invariable Little Pedlington feud rages implacably. Ipswich is situated on the Bremer, which unites with the Brisbane a few miles below that town. It is distant from Brisbane about twenty-five miles by land, about fifty by the river. Communication is kept up by steamers daily, which occupy four or five hours in the trip. The Bremer is fresh, although the tide rises nearly as far as Ipswich. This is the head of navigation, upon which consideration the claims of Ipswich to supremacy are founded. Immediately above the town the river dwindles to an insignificant creek: at the town, although deep, there is scarcely room in the river for a steamer of the size of your Geelong boats to swing round.
In the neighbourhood of both towns there is a great deal of very good land, Ipswich having the advantage of a limestone formation, accompanied by that fertility of soil and luxuriance of vegetation by which, I believe, this basis is invariably distinguished. Ipswich itself is badly situated upon a very broken site. It is one collection of deep ruts, ravines, and steep slopes, exposed to the glare from the white hills around, and in wet weather it must be liable to become insufferably dirty and unwholesome.