Brisbane

Mount Coot-tha dial, 1901. This copy of an engraved dial on the top of Mount Coot-tha appeared in the 1901-02 edition of the Queensland geographical journal. Prepared by W.H. Traill for the trustees of the of the Mount Coot-tha reserve, the paper was read before a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Queensland, by the president Sir Hugh M. Nelson on 30 October 1901. The article states: ‘The lines radiating from the centre to the circumference of this plate, direct the eye straight toward the distant objects named on it. Little more than half of a circle is indicated on the dial. The hills, of which Mt Coot-tha is the projecting end of one spur, cut off the view of the other directions.’ Imagining oneself in the position of the dial, the author noted that on a clear day Sandgate and the ‘glimmering waters of Moreton Bay’ were visible. W.H. Trail, ‘Mount Coot-tha reserve,’ Queensland geographical journal, 17, 1901-02

Indooroopilly and St Lucia estate, 1895.  This map, sheet 11 of ‘McKellar’s Official Map of Brisbane and Suburbs’, depicted the St Lucia estate and undeveloped land where the University of Queensland would be later built. Brisbane city council resumed 976 land parcels for the project. The cottages of the 284 people that were living at St Lucia were also sold off to raise money. Where the carefully sculpted UQ lakes now lie, the left bank of Carmody Creek was lined with land parcels. Later converted into sports fields, the vacant land on the other side was used for the farm school for young men during the Depression. Street names such as Ethel, May and Alice disappeared from the map as the streetscape was replaced with sweeping thoroughfares which curved around new buildings, accentuating the University’s prominence in the newly created landscape. Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Albert Street Literary Trail, 2004. From Your guide to the Albert Street Literary Trail, 2004. Collection of Lara Cain-Gray