Becoming A City: Architecture - Federation

In the centre of town, the handsome new Post Office was completed. Designed and built by the Queensland Government, it passed to the new Federal Government as a result of Federation.

Nearby, a Technical College building was constructed on part of the old Pump Yard reserve. The college had begun in 1891 but held its classes in borrowed and rented premises. As it grew, it became clear that permanent premises were needed and this became a special project to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Its opening in 1901 marked another phase in the educational history of Ipswich, joining the two Grammar schools and the boys and girls colleges at St Mary’s Church in providing a higher level of education.

At Booval, a new butter factory in Jacaranda Street processed its first milk in April 1901 and in Brisbane Street, a brick flour mill was constructed for Francis Kate in 1901-02.

On the north side of the river, huge new railway workshops were being built. The Workshops had started near The Terrace, but the site proved too restrictive and a new location was selected on the old rifle range immediately to the north. Several new buildings were constructed in the 1880s but the depression of the early 1890s halted the work. Two explosions in locomotive boilers in 1899 alerted the government to the fact that workshops facilities had been badly neglected and as the new century started, the building program recommenced. [1]

In 1904, Ipswich, although an important place, was still classified as a town.