Cran Street Velodrome, Maryborough

Ultimate Speed on a racing bike, Clifton c.a. 1930 John Oxley Library Image Number 260579 

Bicycle racing was a very popular sport in Queensland. In 1870, the first shipment of tricycles came to Queensland and the first race is reported to have been between a cyclist and a Cobb and Co coach from Brisbane to Sandgate. (State Library of Queensland).

"The Safety bicycle, most like the bicycle we know today, was introduced into Australia in 1891 and cycling clubs boomed in the 1890s with the Brisbane Cyclist published for members in 1890.Tandem pacing, record breaking, century runs, cyclist versus runner and motor pacing were all features of the early years of cycling".(State Library of Queensland)

Coal Miners on bikes. Source: Fraser Coast Image Gallery

Early Push Bike racing. Baker and General Storekeeper H. Christiansen is in the background with hairdresser J. Kruger. Source: Fraser Coast Libraries Images

The Fraser Coast was a very popular bicycle enthusiast area. Maryborough boasted a well attended club. A remnant of these glory days is the Velodrome that can be found in Cran Street, Tinana. This was built around 1960. Not long after its construction, two of the members of the cycle club, Jack Fisher and Cliff Rhodes, died in the worst civil aviation accident that has occurred in Australia. 

This disaster took 29 lives. Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) Flight 538 crashed into the sea near Mackay, Queensland, about 10pm on June 10, 1960 (Sydney Morning Herald). "It was a clear, moonlit night, though the plane had earlier made two aborted attempts to land because of low fog. It had circled Mackay, waiting for the fog to clear, and simply disappeared after the all-clear had been given"(Sydney Morning Herald). No one aboard survived. An inquiry could determine no cause and made the first recommendation that all large passenger planes should be equipped with flight recorders, or black boxes(Sydney Morning Herald).

The arch over the Memorial Gates at Tinana (since removed) commemorating young cyclists Jack Fisher and Cliff Rhodes.
The plaques on the brick sections still remain.

There are memorial plaques on the gate posts of the Cycling Club Velodrome at Tinana to commemorate Jack Fisher (aged 22) and Cliff Rhodes (aged 16), who were members of the club. They were on their way to a cycling carnival in Mackay. There use to  also be an arch commemorating these young men but it is no longer there.

A second memorial honours two other members of the Fraser Coast Cycling Club - Geoff Minter and Geoff Bandholz. They were killed in car crash in 1965 on their way to a carnival in Bundaberg. A memorial hall was built in their honour in 1966. (Monument Australia, 2019).

Do you know anything about the cycle club? Do you remember this event?

References:
Monument Australia retrieved from http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/tragedy/display/108757-geoff-minter-and-geoff-bandholz on the 29/08/2019.

State Library of Queensland Blog retrieved from http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2011/07/18/cycling/
on the 26/08/2019.

The Sydney Morning Herald 22nd February 2017 Australia's Worst Civil Aviation Disasters retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/australias-worst-civil-aviation-disasters-20170221-gui0cn.html on the 26th August, 2019.

Tags #velodrome #maryborough #Civilaviation #disaster #memorial #monument #cycling #bicycle #bike

Seniors' Week at the Hervey Bay Family History Sessions

Seniors' Week Family History Sessions at the Hervey Bay Library with the Hervey Bay Family History Association Inc

Fraser Coast Libraries ran a Seniors' Week Family History Session in Hervey Bay Library on August 19. Hervey Bay Family History volunteers were available to help people add to their family tree at the drop-in session. Library Staff were also on hand to show how Library Members can access the online databases Ancestry.com and Find My Past for free at all library branches. If you missed the session anyone can get help from the Hervey Bay Family History Association volunteers from 9am to 3pm, Monday to Saturday. Further information is available on the Family History Association website.

Keen attendees at the Hervey Bay Family History sessions.

Library Staff will also be on hand on the 22nd of August at the Maryborough Senior Citizens Mini Expo 333 Alice Street, Maryborough, to go through Family History modules for those looking to do research.

Joining the library is free for Fraser Coast residents and the Hervey Bay Library is at 161 Old Maryborough Road in Pialba and Maryborough Library is at 127-129 Bazaar Street, Maryborough.

Tags #library #familyhistory #ancestry.com #findmypast #beconnected #research #seniorsweek #techsavvy #TSSQld #BeConnectedAU

Howard Pool - the History

Fraser Coast Libraries has acquired a fascinating book about the Howard Pool.  The Howard Pool started 57 years ago as a dream by a gathering of locals who wanted district children to learn to swim. The book by Burrum Swimming Club member, China Johnson, assures us the pool has done its job as there are no records of a child drowning in Burrum district since the swimming lessons began.

Jesse James states in the book that "as a pupil of Howard, I recollect the swimming classes being held at the site in Burrum River below 'the crossing', the point at which the north bound roadway crossed the river before the construction of the low level concrete bridge below the railway crossing."(Johnson, 2012). A swimming school carnival was even held at this site.

Postcard of the opening of the Burrum River Traffic Bridge at Howard, 1926. The bridge was opened by the Queensland Premier, William McCormack in November, 1926, on his visit to the Burrum Coalfields. Source: Fraser Coast Libraries Image Gallery

Apparently the dream of a swimming pool was hatched at a school picnic in the 1930s. Following drownings in the district of Burrum, Howard and Torbanlea, it was felt essential that young people learn to swim. The first official proposal was put forth by Matthew Walker as chair to a meeting of the school committee on 4th June, 1957 (Johnson, 2012).  The pool was officially opened on November 17, 1962 (Johnson, 2012) after local coalminers contributed money from their wages to the project. The pool is still being used to teach children how to swim. You can borrow of a copy of the book Howard Pool the history:how community involvement and spirit was able to provide a lasting legacy:50 years on / 'China' Johnson.2012 from Fraser Coast Libraries.

Copies are available from the Burrum Swim Club.

#howard #pool #burrumdistrict #swimmingclub

Duramboi

James Davis Source:QAGOMA

James Davis was convicted and transported to Sydney and then sent on to the settlement of Moreton Bay in 1828 ( Monument Australia, 2019). The Maryborough Chronicle states "James Davis was a boy of 16 working in his father's blacksmith's shop in Glasgow....he was sent out to Botany Bay in the convict ship, Minstrel, in 1824. Davis was in the chain gang when he and another escaped." According to the Maryborough Chronicle a certain resemblance to a deceased warrior named Durramboi led to the name. An article in the Maryborough Chronicle (1905) written by By Wargandilla claims that Davis was moving from Tribe to Tribe for fourteen years and was fluent in two dialects having almost forgotten English. In 1842, Mr. Andrew Petrie was exploring the Wide Bay and the Mary River when he found Daramboi. The Maryborough Chronicle claims in his last years he kept a crockery shop in George street, near the Lands Office where he and Mrs. Daramboi resided.  He was also engaged as Aboriginal interpreter in the Supreme Court, "travelling about the colony wherever a native unable to speak English was placed on his trial" (Monument Australia, 2019). Davis died in Brisbane in 1889. A monument was erected at Tiaro in 1961 by the Maryborough Historical Society to commemorate the finding of James Davis.  

References:
The Maryborough Chronicle 30th July, 1905 James Davis the Wild White Man 30th July, 1905 retrieved from Trove on the 15th August, 2019.
Monuments of Australia (2019) retrieved from http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/settlement/display/100165-james-davis-durrumboi- on the 15th August, 2019
Tags #Daramboi #FraserIsland #MaryRiver

Do you know the meaning of Ululah?

This photograph was created from a glass negative lent to the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society by Bob Bauer, Maryborough Source: Fraser Coast Libraries Image Gallery

Ululah Lagoon located in Anzac Park Maryborough has stumped some people regarding the origin of its name. A letter received by Council in July, 1977 claims there are two possibilities.
The first is it comes from the poem The Last of His Tribe - a lament for a dying Aborigine, taught to pupils at Maryborough's Central State Primary School in the 1800s when Mr Hercules Smith was head teacher. Contained in the last verse of the  poem was the line
Ululah! behold him, the thunder breaks. 

The second suggestion was that the word Ulooloo is said to mean permanent water in the book Sugden, Joan H & Hodkinson, Frank, 1919-2001, (illustrator.) (1950). Aboriginal words and their meanings. Dymock's Book Arcade, Sydney. The Language group or origin is not listed. A copy can be found in the State Library of Queensland collections GSD 499.6 1954.

An article in the Courier Mail found in Trove was looking for the meaning in 1946. It stated 

"The Courier-Mail's appeal for help on behalf of the Queensland University Place Names Committee, which was stumped over the meaning of the Aboriginal words 'Ula Ula,' brought a swift response. The words mean water-lilies. The secretary of the committee (Mr. Sydney May) said yesterday that a woman solved the problem. She did not want her name mentioned, but he was satisfied the answer was correct. A Maryborough resident, in a letter to The Courier-Mail yesterday, also stated that the name meant water-lilies. Anzac Park, in Maryborough,formerly was named Ululah Park — a corruption of Ula Ula. The park contained a lagoon covered with water-lilies."

State Library of Queensland Indigenous Languages Coordinator Des Crump has suggested some other origins:

Ula Ula on the DNRM Placenames search provides following information:

The name of the parish is derived from an early pastoral run in the district. It can be seen on the western extremity of an 1883 Darling Downs Run Map. It is not known whether the creek or the run was named first. Ula is probably of Aboriginal origin. A.W. Reed identifies 'ulah' meaning a ripple on the water, in use in NSW rather than the local area. [Surveyor-General's Office Brisbane, Darling Downs Run Map; A.W. Reed; ANPS files.]

Trove/NLA indicates the placename was in use n South Australia and refers to “a continuous and permanent stream”; SA Placenames – “The name was applied to a creek 10 km north of Hallett by Captain E.C. Frome, Surveyor-General, in 1843. Aboriginal for 'permanent stream' or 'meandering creek'".

while another Trove source indicates there is a Gaelic origin derived from Uladh [pronounced Ulla] meaning a Cairn or Tomb.

There is a Ngadjuri language in South Australia which includes the placename on their website also with the meaning of ‘permanent and continuous stream’.

"So, the word as a placename was in use in South Australia in the 1840’s and South-West Queensland by 1880’s and most likely adopted for use on the Fraser Coast. This happened quite often particularly by surveyors or settlers moving from one part of Australia to another; for example, there are several Wiradjuri (NSW) placenames in the Cairns district as the surveyor who surveyed Cairns recently completed the survey of Dubbo in Central-West NSW" (Crump, D, 2019)

Do you know any more about the meaning of this place name? Do you agree with any of these suggestions?

References:

The Courier Mail, 8th February, 1946 'ULA ULA' no Poser retrieved from Trove on the 6th August, 2019.

Local History File Ululuh Lagoon LHVF ULUL Maryborough Library

Crump, D (2019) Indigenous Languages Coordinator, kuril dhagun, State Library of Queensland.

Tags #anzacpark #ululah #maryborough #lagoon