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Boom & Bust: Transport
Louisa begins the revival
In 1890, the river trade began to revive in a small way. This was prompted by increases in railway charges which made river transport competitive for bulky items.
The first steamer to reach Ipswich in the new riverboat era was the old Louisa which had been chartered by Cribb & Foote to bring up a load of goods including flour, potatoes and groceries. She returned with a cargo of maize. The following year, a newspaper article commented that “the re-opening of the river traffic, in opposition to that by rail is causing a considerable amount of excitement in Ipswich”. There were soon four regular services - the old timber carrier Mavis, the Punt Owners’ Association using Glide, and William Collin & Co using Mary and Eucalypt. Glide also began to take pleasure trips, usually to the Junction. Moonlight trips were particularly popular. However the Punt Owners’ Associations went into liquidation in early 1893 and William Collin then operated Glide.
In February 1893, this river traffic suddenly became an absolute necessity. The 1893 flood destroyed the bridge at Indooroopilly, and for several years, there was no rail link between Brisbane and western towns. To overcome the problem, goods were sent by road or river to Ipswich to be loaded onto trains for the rest of the journey west.
William Collin used four vessels, Eucalypta, Mavis, Glide and Mary. The Ipswich Line of Lighters also started a service, initially using the Louisa to tow their barges. The agent was Wilson & Co, and the business seems to have been established only as a response to the flood. Coal merchant H.G. Noble & Co put Agnes into service and the lighter Thames was also used. This was an adequate number of steamers to cope with the crisis, but another problem soon arose - a shortage of drays in Ipswich to take cargo from the wharf to the railway yards.
The new Indooroopilly rail bridge opened in August 1895 and the rail link returned to normal. However a modest trade had been established and river traffic continued between Brisbane and Ipswich to a small extent.
