I previously posted some pictures of the site of the old Normanby Rum Distillery on the banks of the South Pine River at Strathpine.
Here’s a picture I took today of one of the few remaining bottles of Normanyby Rum, kept safely for posterity’s sake at the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum, at Old Petrie Town (North Pine Country Markets).
The site of the old Normanby Rum Distillery on the banks of the South Pine River, behind Westfield, Strathpine.
It was built in the early 1870’s and continually produced rum from 1875 until it closed in 1968.
A boat would steam up the South Pine River, collect the rum, and steam back down to Brisbane (an 80 mile journey by water).
One of the old stills operates at Old Petrie Town historical village, where you can sample the rum every Sunday morning.
I passed by here this morning while cycling. I’m really enjoying all the bike tracks and parks in our local area.
A Postcard from Dan (http://airships.net) in Georgia. Dan is a kindred spirit who loves Ships, Airships Old Aircraft and postcards.
Thanks for the fantastic postcards, Dan. I’ve sent a couple more in reply.
The Boeing 314 aircraft operated between 1938 and 1946 for Pan Am and BOAC. She was nicknamed “The Super Clipper” by Pan Am.
This flying boat took off from and landed on water. She had an operational speed of about 300km/h as she carried 36 overnight, or 68 day passengers in luxury on trans-atlantic (New Yor / Southampton) and trans-pacific (San Francisco / Hong Kong) flights.
The seats could be converted into bunks for overnight accommodation. She also boasted a lounge and dining area, where meals cooked by chefs from four-star hotels were served.
An amazing aircraft, with levels of luxury and style that have not been seen since.
A couple of our boys went to school at Pine Rivers High School in Strathpine.
The high school and surrounding houses are built on what used to be an RAAF air field, used in World War 2. In fact many of the streets in that area are named after WW2 planes – Spitfire Avenue, Lancaster Street, Wirraway Street, etc. And Spitfire Avenue is built on the actual runway of the old airfield. Every time I drive down that street I imagine young pilots revving up the engines on their Spitfires, tearing down the runway, and up into the sky above where I live.
In 1944, a couple of Spitfires collided mid-air over what is now the North Pine Country Markets. These photos show a memorial to Bill Wright and Alan Chandler who died in the collision. I don’t know how old they were, but I’m guessing they weren’t much older than a couple of our own boys today.
I ride past the monument some mornings, and thought I’d pay my respects today.
Who knows, perhaps in some other universe, young Bill and Alan are still flying their Spitfires and enjoying the view?
Regardless, these young men deserve to be remembered.
Steve G and Harrison out exploring with me this morning. We found some really quiet trails and ended up doing a leisurely 25km.
Thanks for being patient and going slower than normal for this old warhorse, Steve!
That’s Yebri Creek in the photos. It’s about a kilometer upstream of where John Oxley came ashore in 1823 with shipwrecked convict John Finnegan (who mistakenly thought it was the Brisbane River).
It’s at this creek in 1824 that some convicts from the new settlement at Humpybong on the Redcliffe Peninsula came for timber. They encountered some Aborigines, one of whom tried to take an axe from one of the timbergetters. Tragically, the Aborigine was shot and killed in return – a single act of violence which tarnished the relationship between Aborigines and Europeans for decades.
Forty-five years later in the 1860’s, Tom Petrie, a local pioneer and friend of the local North Pine Aboriginal clan, built a stockyard here.
I feel like a midget standing beside giants when I think of the people who lived through the six years of World War Two.
It started 70 years ago today.
I’ve never fought in a war. No one has ever dropped a bomb on my house. None of my immediate family has ever been killed or injured in an armed conflict. I’ve never had to contend with the idea that a foreign power wanted to invade my country. I’ve never lived through rationing. I’ve never had to go into a bomb shelter.
To all you wonderful people who endured all of this and more, thank you.
Thanks for not giving up, for hoping, for enduring.
We live in a better world today because of you.
In the back of her wardrobe, my mum found some old documents covering a period of almost a hundred years. It’s a bit like taking a visit to Narnia digging around in the back of old wardrobes. Perhaps that’s why C.S.Lewis wrote about them.
Rather than spoonfeed it all to you here, why don’t you take your own trip to Narnia and dig around by clicking on the slideshow and having a look at some of these amazing things.
There’s a picture of my Dad pretending to be a rich oil-sheik, a heart warming anniversary card from my Grandad to Grandma a couple of years before he died, a seaside postcard written by my Aunts shortly after the war, some concert programs from during the second world war, and much more.
I love this stuff. It tells me about life before I was born, before my parents were born, and gives me a sense of being part of an unfolding, fascinating history!
I found the image on the right here. Many of the features in it match those in the postcard which places it as I thought at Petrie Bight. The photo on the right is from Picture Queensland, the State Library of Queensland, dated 1924. Here’s what the info about the picture says:
Wharves at Petrie Bight, Brisbane. The S.S. ‘Royal City’, 5411 gross tons and 3481 nett tons, docked at Nixon-Smiths wharves, Circular Quay, on 17 February, 1924. The S.S. ‘Royal City’ is discharging 19, 399 cases of kerosene, 20,000 cases of benzine and motor spirit and 650 tons of general cargo from New York and Port Arthur.
The 1924 picture has many additional buildings not in the postcard, so I’m sticking with my guess that the postcard is dated around 1910.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the ships in both pictures are the same. The stern of SS Royal City in the picture on the right is quite different from the stern of the vessel in the postcard.
Even so, it’s great to be able to more accurately date and place the postcard.
