There are intriguing references to a location called Sailors' Gully in Brisbane's Highgate Hill over a 30 year period at the end of the 19th century. A 1930s description mentions runaway sailors living here in tents and later building houses. My research has identified four of the sailors who gave it this name, and revealed their stories.
1900 -1920
Glenview – An 1883 Highgate Hill House
We've lived in our house now for almost 40 years. In this post I describe Glenview's origins and some of the people who have lived here, as well our journey through restoration and maintenance of this old house.
Sabbath Wars
Today, Sunday is a day of leisure for many, while others work and earn penalty-rate wages. This situation evolved slowly over a long period of time from the position of any work or public leisure activities on a Sunday being an anathema to most and often illegal. There was along the way angst, stale bread, and ripped up cricket pitches.
“Trevenen” – the Life and Death of a Highgate Hill House
The story of the large house Trevenen on Westbourne Street Highgate Hill follows a pattern that is all too familiar. Built between the 1870s and 1880s to house a large affluent family, it was modernised in the 1920s when it enjoyed its social heyday. Trevenen became a mixed family home and flats for some years before being divided into 7 flats for over 60 years. Over time, its condition has steadily deteriorated and demolition has been approved.
Charlie “Chiller” Jones – a Kurilpa Lionheart
Charles Julius Jones survived leg injuries from a shark attack in the Brisbane River as a boy, and shrapnel wounds to the legs on the Somme in WW1, only for tragedy to strike on his return home to West End, Brisbane.
The story of an intersection: Boundary and Vulture Streets, West End
The corner of Boundary and Vulture Streets in West End has been a centre of local commerce since the 1880s. This post traces the history of the intersection and the people who had their businesses there.
Say Tristram’s Please !
The son of a soldier sent to Australia, Thomas Tristram started his own soft drink business at an early age. After his death, managed by the family, Tristram's became a household name, before falling victim to the changing structure of the industry.
The Trials and Tribulations of Thomas Dixon
Thomas Dixon certainly had a lot of ups and downs. In 1885, he lost all 5 of his tannery and boot-making buildings in a fire, the 1893 flood swept away a tannery building, in 1908 another fire destroyed a major building with all its equipment, and finally a blaze in 1952 destroyed a large amount of stock. Despite weathering a crisis from cheap imports in the 1930s, it succumbed to the same issue 50 years later.
James Cole and the West End Can Factory
James Cole establish a small tinsmith business in 1885. His firm, later the Queensland Can Company, steadily grew over the years at its Vulture Street, West End, location to become a major local employer. The remaining buildings are a reminder of this industrial heritage.
Dornoch Terrace – A Pathway Through Time Part 2
In part 1 of my history of Dornoch Terrace, I looked at its ancient origins as an Aboriginal pathway and early European settlement through the 19th century. This post covers the development of the street into a prestigious "dress circle" in the 1920s and 30s, followed by a period of decline, and finally the emergence … Continue reading Dornoch Terrace – A Pathway Through Time Part 2
Highgate Hill and Its History 