On The Homefront: Infrastructure & Utilities

The war years saw little infrastructure development carried out unless it related directly to the war effort or was absolutely essential.

In May 1949 Council approved the Ipswich Town Plan “Master Plan”, prepared by Brisbane architects Scorer and Scorer, engineers Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey and the Ipswich City Engineer D. J. McCulloch. The ambitious plan, intended to guide the city’s progress for the following 75 years, addressed a raft of infrastructure improvements including arterial roads, ring roads, and city by-passes; new bridges over the Bremer River; shifting of all services underground; and land zoning to cater for residential areas, noxious and hazardous industry, and parks and green belts.

On 9 May 1949, the Queensland Times editorialised that the Master Plan was:

… calculated to engender greater pride in the city, and determination to make Ipswich a self-contained centre, with all the attractions and the modern equipment required to make its people happy and contented. Furtherance of the plan as part of civic policy would enable citizens to enjoy their week-ends here as much as they would elsewhere, and it … must be pursued if Ipswich is not to become one of the second-rate cities in the State. In other parts of the State the people are keen to make their home centres first-rate places to live in. The people of Ipswich must be imbued with the same spirit.

Over several months following release of the Master Plan, the Queensland Times published seven weekly extracts. These included existing and proposed parklands; improvements to the rail system and the introduction of an “electric trolley bus” fleet; proposals for the roadway system incorporating boulevards, new bridges, a ring road and connections between roads and the rail system; zoning for various land uses; flooding; tree planting; and construction of a crematorium.

On 1 June the article was about the Roadway System:

The planners propose a network of roadways and deal with schemes for "ring-roads" and by-pass roads to avoid congestion in the city. The report also deals with main roads through the city and with connecting roadways to enable people to move from one suburb to the other without passing through the centre of the city.

Click on the links below to read the series of Queensland Times articles.

Elections soon after the Plan’s adoption saw the appointment of a new Council which supported only a “back to basics” policy of roads, footpaths, and water. The Master Plan was shelved.

Sewerage

Before the installation of a sewerage systems with flush toilets, householders, workers and visitors relied on outhouses – the backyard “dunny” which was emptied by night soil collectors.

During the Depression years, Council had secured a State government loan to fund sewerage works for the city, and thereby, also provide employment. By 1939 the scheme was under construction.[1] The sewerage scheme was one of the few infrastructure projects which continued to progress during the war years.

As early as 1941 Council was considering approaching the State Government for additional funds to complete its sewerage scheme and also to improve the city’s water supply, the latter in part to ensure efficient working of an expanded sewerage network. Work on the sewerage system continued during the war, including construction of treatment works and pumping stations. On 9 December 1942 the Queensland Times reported:

“The City Engineer remarked that in the near future people of the city would see in operation in part of the city the sewerage scheme for which they had been so long waiting.”

Progress slowed towards the end of the war and for some time afterwards, caused by a lack of tradesmen available to complete the work for Council and its contractors. There was also a shortage of earthenware pipes which, by 1950 was hoped to be remedied by expansion and improvements at the Ebbw Vale Brickworks and Dinmore Pottery.

Completion of the eastern suburbs scheme in late 1953 or early 1954 was the culmination of the sewerage program first envisaged by Council in 1935. It would result in a total of 7,200 Ipswich houses being sewered.[2]

Water Supply

In 1935 the Stanley River Works Board, a joint Brisbane-Ipswich undertaking, began construction of what would become known as Somerset Dam. It had dual purposes of flood mitigation, and water supply for Ipswich, Brisbane, Logan, Redcliffe, and the Shires of Beaudesert, Esk and Kilcoy.

Work was suspended during the war. Work resumed in 1948 and the dam was finally completed in 1959. Water from Somerset flows into Wivenhoe Dam that now supplies water to Ipswich.

In the meantime, backyard rainwater tanks still supplied many houses in town as well as well as on farms. High water towers (for example on the corner of Chermside Road and Tower Street, Eastern Heights) gravity-fed reticulated water to those connected to the town supply which came from Mount Crosby. In addition to dams, some local farmers sank bores to water stock and crops.

Electricity

Electricity had been available in the Ipswich town area from 1919, and by 1936 the Ipswich Electric Supply Company had been granted a franchise for the West Moreton region. By the beginning of the war electricity had been supplied to a number of rural areas around Ipswich.

During the war years Brisbane company, the City Electric Light Company Limited, became the supply authority for southeastern Queensland, absorbing eight small electricity authorities, including the Ipswich Electric Supply Company in 1939. This was further consolidated in 1953 with the creation of the Southern Electric Authority of Queensland covering southeast Queensland including Toowoomba. Importantly, regulations were introduced to control the standards of electrical appliances giving a greater measure of safety to both the electrical worker and the consumer.

Gas

The Ipswich Gas and Coke Company’s gasworks was constructed in 1877 and by the 1950s served 3200 customers in the Ipswich area. That number was increasing by 8 to 10 per cent annually. The company constructed its third gasholder in North Ipswich in the 1950s to meet this increasing demand. The gasholder stored coal gas but it was converted for natural gas in c. 1969. Eighty per cent of the gas was consumed in homes, with the remainder used by industry.

Fears that the 1940 coal strike in New South Wales would affect coal supplies to the Ipswich Gas and Coke Company’s gasworks in North Ipswich prompted the company to convert part of the plant to use crude oil. The Queensland Times of 17 April 1940 reported that the alterations just completed would reduce the gasworks’ usage of coal by around 75% with no loss of gas quality. The gasworks later converted back to coal usage.

Defence Roads

Defence projects began in Queensland before war was declared. During the late 1930s, preparations were being made for the inevitable, including a defence road across Queensland. The road was planned to connect Cairns and Ipswich, but would be routed away from coastal roads, bridges and railways vulnerable to attack by Japanese forces. The road would travel via Atherton, Charters Towers, Clermont, Emerald, Duaringa, Baralaba, Rannes, Banana, Eidsvold, Gayndah, Blackbutt, Esk and Fernvale. Surveys began in 1939, but construction work did not start until 1942.

Railways

In 1950 the Queensland Government announced that it would begin electrifying the suburban rail lines, including Ipswich to Shorncliffe. Although the project was expected to be entirely complete within nine years, it eventually took until 1983 to come to fruition.

Incinerator

The Burley-Griffin designed incinerator disposed of the city’s rubbish. Opened in 1936 by Mayor A.T. Stephenson wielding a gold key, three short years later an increased capacity was needed. The second furnace unit, quenching chamber and chimney were added in 1940.