Little Ipswich by the Sea

Daytrips to the Beach

In the early 20th century, daytrips to Sandgate, Wynnum, or Redcliffe would be organised by employees for their staff and family.  In 1914, Cribb 7 Foote arranged an elaborate event which included a train trip from Ipswich to Brisbane, than a trip to Redcliffe on the steamship Koopa.

The Miners' Picnics

Annual miners' picnics were held at either Sandgate or Wynnum.  Jessie Edwards described the events:

The miners trip was something to look forward to - four o'clock in the morning we would get up and it would be still dark.  We'd go down to the gates at Blackstone to catch the miner's train.  It was a real day out.  The mines took everybody, there were so many train loads.

We went to Sandgate and they would have a band there, they'd have races, they made it a real sports day.  The crowds, you know!  Then we would come home dirty and tired and the children crying but somebody would start up a song and they'd all be singing.  The time would just go.  Then we'd come to the gate, time now to walk home and we were all too tired for anything.

Sunday School Picnics

Bob Sneyd described the annual Sunday School picnics of the Church of England in an oral history with Robyn Buchanan:

The Church of England and all the Sunday Schools used to have an annual trip for picnics.  The Church of England used to run two trains down to Sandgate.  The first train would take all the children - that's how many children used to attend.  The second lot was for the parents.  You'd arrive at Roma Street and somebody would come along with a basket and every child received a bun.

Then we got to Sandgate and had fun and games there and paddling in the water.  When it came to lunchtime, you sat down in rows according to your class and along would come great baskets of sandwiches, cakes and buns and great jugs of lemon syrup.  Everyone was issued with a mug.  It must have been a lot of work for the people who organised that.

Christmas at "Little Ipswich"

By the 1950s, daytrips to the beach had been replaced by camping holidays over Christmas.  Some families went to the same camp site every year, often finding their Ipswich neighbours in a nearby tent.  Not everyone owned a car, so carriers such as Whybrids collected the camping gear in Ipswich and dropped it off at each campsite along the coast, making the reverse trip at the end of the holidays.

Val Vogel recounted her childhood holidays to Robyn Buchanan:

Coolangatta and Tweed Heads used to be called "Little Ipswich" at Christmas time - so many Ipswich people were camping there.  Our family camped at the Railway Reserve, near the Coolangatta Post Office.  We children went down by train with the mothers and Whybirds truck took the gear down - they picked up the tents from each house.  None of the old camping areas along the beachfront are left now.

The beaches became the venue for organised games such as the "hokey pokey", an idea backed by Greenmount and other guest houses.  The South Coast was renamed the "Gold Coast" and in 1954, the first "motel" was built - the El Dorado at Surfers' Paradise.  This new type of accommodation soon revolutionised holidays and travel.  The North Coast also boomed and became the "Sunshine Coast".