Trove Tuesday: Let’s go ice skating

Image from Microsoft Images online. Just seeing this photo makes my heart beat faster.

A year or so ago I wrote how ice skating was one of my teenage pleasures. At the time I could find little about the origins of an ice rink that existed at Mowbray Park, South Brisbane in the 1960s. Those searches had left me unsatisfied so with today being Trove Tuesday it seemed only logical to have another trawl of Trove.

Brisbane is of course a sub-tropical city, so one might wonder when someone took on the challenge of building an ice rink. I personally knew of the Mowbray Park one which was definitely open in the 1960s, but when did it start and how long did it last? Thanks to Ice Skating Queensland I now know this rink closed in 1967.

Trove is silent on this rink other than a couple of photos here and here (copyright and reproduction rights apply) because of course the digitised papers don’t go that far forward. The images reveal that Brian Crossland, then a recent immigrant from Blackpool, was the manager of the rink in Brisbane while fellow English immigrant, Terrance Wright, maintained over 500 pairs of skates. That’s a lot of skates so it suggests they must have been doing a reasonable business while it lasted.

Sadly the reality of my skating never matched my imaginings. Image from Microsoft images online

I did wonder if perhaps the Mowbray Park ice rink was built on the site of a former roller skating rink that had also been in Melbourne St, South Brisbane. It could be a pretty dodgy rink at times, with strips where the ice melted regularly –rather like skating on icy corrugated iron at times.

Architectural drawing of a proposed ice skating rink in Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, 1938. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland  http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/153922643

Had Brisbane ever had an ice rink before Mowbray Park I wondered? Trove was more helpful with this query revealing there had been grand plans for an Ice Palais in Wickham St, Fortitude Valley opposite McWhirters in 1938. Trove gave me the proposed building design (above), Council approval, and an advertisement. Sydney had its Glaciarium and Brisbane obviously thought it was time to get in on the fun (or more likely the profits).

The Courier-Mail 10 August 1938.  ttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41006705

The Courier-Mail 5 November 1938.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38731079

So why was Brisbane suddenly so keen on ice skating? Turns out the whole country had gone ice-mad in response to the popularity of Sonja Henie (as per this larger Trove article). Sonja was a beautiful Norwegian ice skater turned movie star. It was interesting to see her skate in this YouTube video but also surprising to see the dependence on spins and relative absence of jumps, revealing just how much more athletic figure skating has become over the years.

Sonja Henie made the cover of Time Magazine in 1939. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

With Brisbane’s Ice Palais scheduled to open in April 1939, it seemed logical that the rink might have been still around when my mother arrived from North Queensland a few years later. I gave her a call, and no, it wasn’t something she could recall either. I’d been pretty astonished to read about this proposed ice rink near my old stomping ground in the Valley where we shopped regularly. If it had survived it might have been there when I was a child, which it surely wasn’t. It’s possible that the sheer cost of such an ice rink meant its construction was delayed. From this story in The Courier Mail it’s clear to see that it was a very expensive investment.

The Courier-Mail 5 November 1938 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38731156

The public were still keen to get out skating and a clue in The Courier Mail’s Answers to Correspondents column gives the next clue to the Palais. (17 February 1939)

The Courier Mail 17 February 1939

Trawling Trove month by month through 1939, I could find no further evidence of this grand plan. What happened? Could they not raise sufficient funds? If so then the declaration of war in September 1939 would likely have hammered the final nail in their plans…there’d have been no capital investment money for frivolities like ice skating rinks or Palais.

Instead the focus seems to have turned to entertainment, as it sometimes does during war-time to keep the spirits up. And one of the promotional stories provides the first confirmation that the Palais had not (yet) been built.

The Courier-Mail 18 November 1939 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40887629

Ice revues were popular and just as entertainment events like Disney on Ice have especially set-up ice rinks, so did these revues held at the old His/Her Majesty’s Theatre. I thought it was interesting that the revue was timed to coincide with the annual Ekka when all the country people were in town, thereby maximising the potential audience.

The Courier Mail 16 November 1939.

The Courier Mail 8 August 1940, page 15
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40926899

And so it seems Brisbane’s hopes for an ice rink, or Ice Palais, expired for another twenty years until the Mowbray Park rink seems to have opened.  In the interim, there were two proposals to combine ice skating with other sporting facilities.

The Courier-Mail 18 September 1947 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49312310

Then in 1953, there was a bid for a combined swimming pool and ice rink complex at Mt Gravatt. I’m reasonably sure this never went ahead but would be happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

The Courier-Mail 17 September 1953. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51079376

After the Mowbray Park rink closed in 1967, another rink opened in the north-eastern suburb of Toombul in 1971. I did know of this rink though I never skated there (these were my PNG years), but I had completely forgotten about it until reminded by Ice Skating Queensland. My recollection now is that many (all?) of the professionals at the later rink at Acacia Ridge came from there.

Perhaps it was thanks to improved technology that made it viable to open an Olympic standard rink in the sub-tropics with Iceworld at Acacia Ridge. We had not long returned from Papua New Guinea and we embraced this different and fun activity, making Iceworld our home away from home. It also has fond extended family memories as my cousin and his family joined us in our devotion to the sport. Our smallest bear spent lots of time as a toddler at the rink –she’d sit in her pram on the sidelines while I attended women’s classes, and as each woman reached that side of the rink they’d talk to her. And then there were the dawn training sessions with our older daughters until the constant recurrence of their ear infections meant we gave it up. Lots of happy memories!

The two eldest at Acacia Ridge c1981. And then there were costumes to make as well.

As we found during a Brisbane visit, outdoor rink is set up in King George Square in June each year for their new Winter Festival. It seems to be proving very popular with lots of people having a ton of fun. (By the way, cold in Brisbane doesn’t mean much below 10C)

I still say if Jakarta, Singapore and Dubai can have indoor ice rinks, there’s no reason (other than that pesky money) why Darwin can’t! The fact that I’d probably break my neck these days is beside the point.

The ice rink in Jakarta’s Mall Taman Anggrek. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Isn’t it amazing how much you can learn about your home city from Trove? I picked up all sorts of clues about Brisbane’s roller skating rinks, but that’s a story for another Trove Tuesday.

Trove Tuesday is an innovative idea by Amy at Branches, Leaves and Pollen.

Beyond the Internet: Week 3: Houses wrapped in red tape.

Don’t you find life is full of red tape? Someone always wants paperwork from you in relation to some part of your life. How do people survive who are uneducated I wonder.

The very same red tape that we often find so exasperating in day-to-day life, is heaven-sent when we’re doing family history. Much of it is found wrapped in brown paper tied with a pink ribbon, in an archive near you. Relatively speaking little of it is available on the internet. The Beyond the Internet series is intended to highlight some of the sources you may not have thought about and which will flesh out your family stories.

I’ve put a graphic on this page to represent our exploration Beyond the Internet. The unedited version was a free clipart from Microsoft Office so I think there are no copyright issues. Feel free to put it on your blog page if you want to join in and post to any of these topics…the more the merrier. It would be great too if there was representation from different regions and countries.

In Week 2 I talked a little about the sources available off-line about the history of your ancestral homes: personal records (papers, diaries, letters); cultural heritage studies; English land enclosure maps; LDS microfilms of parish records other than registers; photos and local and oral histories; as well as land selection records for early settlers. This week my focus is slightly different though the two topics interlink. I’ll focus on four sources and illustrate how they’ve helped my family history:

1. Land titles and title certificates

2. Council rates

3. Sewerage records

4. Survey maps

Land Titles

Land titles documents are available from the State lands department (its name will vary depending on place and government but in Queensland is currently the Department of Environment and Resource Management). Yes, they are not free but they can also be very useful and the money well spent.

My grandparents' house c1930

On a recent trip interstate I purchased two certificates of title for my grandparents’ property.[i] No one really knew when Grandad bought the land and built the house but these documents solved part of that mystery. The first certificate, dated 5 September 1917, showed my grandfather’s purchase of plot 31 from a David McMullen who’d bought it only a few months earlier from a James Taylor Searle. These transfers were around the time the subdivision took place. This purchase date was only a month before Grandad enlisted to serve in WWI, which tells me he was setting something aside either for his betrothed (if they were actually engaged) or his younger siblings in case he was killed. My grandfather was a steady, considered man so I have little doubt this was a planned strategy…it would be so interesting to see his military will. He’d been the eldest child when both his parents died so no doubt that impacted on his life attitudes. A few months later the title on the adjoining plots 30 and 31 were transferred to Susan Ann Easey on 23 January 1918.

But it doesn’t end there. On his return from the war my grandfather purchased plots 30 and 31 from Susan Ann Easey, stated to be the wife of Arthur Edwin Easey on 21 January 1921. Oral history also tells us that Mrs Easey is the woman with whom Grandad boarded his youngest brother after their parents’ died. Mrs Easey appears on the electoral rolls but interestingly not at this address.

My grandparents married in 1922 so my best guess at present is that the house was built between 1921 and his marriage. The house currently sits close-ish to the boundary between plots 30 and 31 but my mother told me recently that my grandparents’ house was moved a couple of metres when my parents’ house was built after their marriage. Hence my hypothesis is that Grandad built the house after he had purchased all three blocks and between January 1921 and April 1922.

Another snippet on the Certificate of Title has given me a further clue to explore when next at the Archives. His will, through the Public Curator of Queensland, was dated 15 January 1948 and as they acted as “devisee in trust”, I’m assuming the house had been left to my father but for my grandmother to have residence until her death.

I do find land records quite confusing and for New South Wales records some years ago I used a record agent to dig out the many land files for one of my ancestors. I figured it was probably worth my while and would be more efficient than me trying to get to the bottom of it all during brief interstate trips.

Council rates

Even though Council rates are local government records many historic records are held at the Queensland State Archives (other states may be different and I can’t speak for that). There may also be copies held in the relevant town.   After the establishment of Ipswich as a municipality, many of my ancestors appear in the records for that town’s rate payments. So what does this tell us? The value of the property relative to those nearby will give you an idea of the standard of their house. There may be maps which correlate to the land allotments allowing you to be absolutely certain where their house or business was located. This will enable you to compare that with current maps or to pinpoint the location during a site visit.

As rates are paid on all properties owned you may discover that your ancestors owned more than one property – something which doesn’t become clear from Post Office directories or electoral rolls, which are most likely to focus only on their residential property. I also made an interesting discovery that one of my ancestors changed his first name when he moved towns, probably because of a problem with the law. It makes you wonder how he came to revert to his original name and what people’s responses to that were in a small town…or was it only on the rate books that his name was different. Rate books will also give you an insight into the area –the type of housing, the area’s expansion etc.

It’s important to investigate where these sources are located. I’ve found them in the Queensland State Archives (my main haunt), local history libraries and Sydney City Archives (thanks to a tip-off from a genie-colleague). You may even find clues to assist your search you on the local real estate pages (yes, online I know!).

Sewerage Records

I’d never heard of these records until alerted to them by Susie Zada at a talk in 2011. She’s also published a helpful little booklet through Unlock the Past, called Sewerage Records: an untapped magnificent resource. I can recommend it highly.

I followed Susie’s tip and obtained the sewerage maps for my grandparents’ and parents’ street. The map shows all the buildings at the time, their location on the block and you will see where there were outhouses (dunnies/toilets) before the sewerage was installed.

Survey maps

One of the early houses in the area 1878. State Library of Queensland Negative 153648. Image out of copyright.

Early survey maps are so useful for learning more about the area where your ancestors lived. I look at them at the archives and the most important ones I purchase. Another source might be your Lands Department, especially if they have an historical library or such. Recently I obtained early maps of my grandparents’ and parents’ suburb (not urgent before because I was familiar with it from growing up there – or so I thought).

The maps show where the early landed “estates” were: properties with grander houses some featured on Picture Queensland. It shows a water reserve in a dip in the hilly street which my father called Frog’s Hollow (apt I think) and where there’s currently a house on the market for about $800,000.  Reserves are set aside for schools and public recreation. Comparing these maps with stories published in the local newspaper (available online at Trove), brings the area to life. Each map reveals slightly different features including one showing the hilliness of the area. The names of some previously unknown homes will let me link them to the owners I researched through the electoral rolls.

These Beyond the Internet resources are, as so often, just the tip of the iceberg. I’d love to hear of other sources people have used to learn more about their ancestral homes.

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[i] Certificates of title number 2228334 volume S 1319 folio 74 and 243499 Volume S 1387 and folio 239.

Aerial overview Darwin and Brisbane

Yesterday I flew interstate on an unexpected trip to Brisbane. So what you might say…well, while I’ve made this journey many times, for some reason yesterday’s flight paths were out of the ordinary.

In Darwin, we took off in a westerly direction from the runway, all well and good except Brisbane is south. However the bonus was that we did a wide circuit over the harbour looking at the Wet Season green of the vegetation, the rivers and coastline fringed with white sand, the boats in the marina at Cullen Bay and out on the harbour. The sandbar near Cullen Bay was exposed, something that happens when the tide is particularly low. You could see the waterfront complex and all the new high rises in the city. As they tell you on the guided tours, Darwin harbour is about twice the size of Sydney’s world-renowned harbour so it’s impressive.

You’d be forgiven for thinking, as you look at this tropical magnificence, “oh if only I was down there swimming”. Sadly this isn’t possible most of the year and especially so in the Wet Season. Those beautiful waters are home to stingers which can kill you and they pull out about 200 crocodiles a year, bearing in mind they’re the ones they trap (and relocate). Of course there are no doubt sharks out there too but with the other two “deadlies” out there, what’s a shark between friends. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve swum in the harbour since we arrived in Darwin over a decade ago.

I had business papers to read on the flight so the 3.5 hours of the flight passed quickly among the clouds.

To add icing to the flight-path cake, on approach to Brisbane we came in from the west, which again doesn’t happen all that often. Usually the approach of Darwin flights is from the east over Moreton Island and the Brisbane river and mangrove flats. Yesterday we followed the river’s serpentine path as it flowed past The University of Queensland where I’ve spent many years of my life, parallel to the CBD with my old school off to one side a little, and the Gabba where Brisbane’s major cricket matches are played. We then angled around to come in over Teneriffe and Newstead House.

All in all a wonderful aerial tour of two cities I’ve lived in for many years, topped off by a smooth landing by the Qantas pilot.

52 weeks of personal genealogy and history: Week 45: High School: I’m a proud All Hallows’ girl

The topic for Week 45 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is: High School. Describe your middle and/or high school. Was it a large or small student body? Is the school still in existence today? How has it changed since you went there?

The old, new and not-so-new: buildings at All Hallows' including the heritage building on the right edge and the red-brick building which had state-of-the art facilities in my day, and the concert hall, new in my daughters' days there.

Earlier this year I wrote about my high school, All Hallows’ School, because in 2011 the school has been celebrating its 150^th anniversary. At the time I spoke about its critical role in my life and the importance of the teachers who taught me there. Equally important to attending this school, was my mother’s determination in ensuring I was accepted to the school even though my primary school was run by a different order of nuns. At a time when many working class parents either did not believe in educating their daughters to university level, or could not afford it, my father and mother committed themselves to making this possible….without this opportunity I truly believe my life would have been very different.

All Hallows’ is a reasonably large school with a student population of around 1000, which may have changed somewhat in recent years with a significant building program to utilise what is a restricted inner-city location. Inventive building strategies have been required to maximise the opportunities.

The Brisbane city skyline as I finished school: you can see the start of the high-rise construction..

What’s changed since I went there? In my day the teaching staff were almost exclusively nuns and when we passed them we would have to curtsy and say, ever so politely “good morning sister”. These days the teaching staff are mainly lay teachers but I imagine that the students still have to be as courteous.

Our dress code was much more rigid than it is today. In some ways the school has had a more “modern” dress style than many other private schools of the day (aka public schools in the British system). However in my day, wearing stockings, gloves and hat was non-negotiable and failure to do so would generate a severe reprimand. It certainly kept the prefects busy ensuring everyone was dressed to code. And in case any wayward girl shed her gloves or hat on the way home, there’d be bound to be an “old girl” who would happily report the misdemeanour to the Principal! There are even occasions when I’ve felt like doing the same (before overcoming the urge) when their bags etc are scattered around the Brisbane mall on a Friday evening.  They even have scarves to wear these days…how trendy . Eating in public was a major no-no as people would apparently think our parents hadn’t fed us….not so today.

Brisbane's river view from near the school c2001. The area beyond the right of the image is dense with tall office buildings and high rises. The old Customs House stands proud in the shadow of the new Brisbane thanks in large part to the support of The University of Queensland.

We were equally restricted in our social interaction on the way to or from school. It didn’t matter whether the boy on the bus was your brother or the gorgeous creature (usually from Churchie) that you’d had your eye on for ages….there was to be no communication…not even meaningful glances. By the time my daughters went to the same school they had a repertoire of male friends whom they met on public transport to/from school. When they were at All Hallows’ there was a visiting group of Italian students on exchange at the school…the “interpersonal interaction” on the Terrace was enough to make the deceased nuns spin in their graves!

The Story Bridge: part of the school's borrowed landscape as the saying goes. The bridge has always been something of a character in the school's events and dramas including this year's celebrations. Where there was wharves and working areas are now high rise apartments and a hotel.

Another significant difference, too, is that in my time we had both boarders and a primary school stream. There was always a division of sorts between the boarders and day students as we had an independence that their restricted lives precluded. I believe that the primary school has recently been reopened. The primary school strand was closed first and some time after I left it ceased to be a boarding school.

Another major difference is the view from the school up and down the river as you can see in the photos here. Taken from slightly different places near the school you can see how Brisbane has mushroomed.

The school retains its emphasis on academic, sporting and cultural achievement as well as its focus on Mercy ideals and faith-based activities such as retreats or charity and support for the less-advantaged. On Bow Tie Day this year, one class of students collected $15,800 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society from Brisbane’s CBD workers and visitors…that’s a pretty impressive contribution! I admit that when did something similar I was really pathetic at doing the collecting…left to my teenaged self they’d probably only have raised $15.80!

Brisbane, the River City c2001 from near the school.

The style of the activities may have changed but I imagine in many ways, it would be perfectly possible for any “old girl” to slot right in. What remains for many are the bonds formed between these teenage girls as they progress through high school and into the wider world, and the knowledge that women can be independent and successful…however each young woman chooses to define it.  I doubt, too, that there’d be many of us who have forgotten the spiritual presence of generations of women that you feel in the school chapel. No wonder it’s been such a success since they opened it as a wedding venue.

If you missed my earlier post , I’d love you to read it in conjunction with this story.

Down the rabbit hole with McCorkindales and the tragedy of the steamer Pearl.

Monday’s task was to try to find my grandmother’s niece, Ida McCorkindale and siblings, in the newly released Commonwealth Electoral Rolls on Ancestry. I’ve looked at ERs before for her and her siblings with limited results and I was optimistic that with the wider range nation-wide she’d turn up. This time was both a win and a lose: I found Ellen Sim McCorkindale (initially Nellie) through to 1980 and the probate indexes date her death as 1981. Ida disappears around the end of the 1930s and so far I have not found her in marriage or death indexes. I also tried other subscription sites without any greater success. Brother Duncan is more confusing as there are a few possible ones including a marriage, so yet more work to do on all of them.

Next step was to have another look at Trove to see if anything new had turned up there on the family. This is when the rabbit started sprinting for the hole with me in pursuit. I came across an entry for a Mr McCorkindale drowning in Brisbane on 13 February 1896, and looked at Qld BDM online to see who he was….no entry in 1896.

One thing quickly led to another and I was soon immersed down the rabbit hole with the story of a dramatic river accident in which up to 25 people were missing or drowned, one of them Mr McCorkindale.

The essence of what happened was that the steamer Pearl was setting off with about 80 passengers, much less than its full complement to travel between Queen’s Wharf and Musgrave Wharf at South Brisbane. The river was in flood and there were eddies which the captain, an experienced seaman, said threw the boat off course so they barely avoided the Normanby, and the Pearl crossed the chains of the government steamer, the Lucinda, at which the Pearl crashed, split in two and sank.[i] Its passengers and crew quickly found themselves in the river, some being rescued quickly by the crew of the Lucinda. Others were not so fortunate and were swept away. For some time later bodies were being recovered along the length of the river. Mr McCorkindale was reported as saying to Mr Ballinger, the traffic inspector, “Goodbye, I cannot swim. Remember me to my wife”. He was not seen again and remained on the missing list throughout. When you look at the list of women among the missing, it seems likely that the heavy clothing of the time would have stacked the odds against them. While initial reports placed the missing and drowned at 25 but it has been difficult to find final numbers.

A magisterial inquiry was held a week later on 20 February 1896. One report in particular caught my attention. There had been some South Sea Islander people on board including a woman and two children, one of whom remained missing. However a Tommy Matahbelle was refused the opportunity to give evidence because he was not baptised, hence not a Christian, and therefore could not give an oath and evidence. Application for him to be allowed to provide a statement was also refused[ii]. Legal and conventional but hardly moral justice: no multi-cultural acceptance in those days.

The findings of the subsequent Marine Board enquiry were that the master of the Pearl, James Chard, displayed want of skill in navigating the vessel, and that the steamer was lost through his default. His certificate as a home trade master, and his licenses to take charge of steamers within the limits of any port, were cancelled.[iii]

While this is a sad story, significant enough to generate a telegram from the Queen and the British Prime Minister, what intrigued me was the ambiguity over the registration of the deaths. I checked the list of the missing against the Qld BDM indexes and while the uncertainty over first names made it difficult, it seems apparent that at least some of the missing may not have made it to the death registers highlighting one of the ways in which our family can cause us “brick walls”. Mr McCorkindale turned out to be Archibald McCorkindale per the inquiry reports. His death was not registered until 1922 some 26 years later. I wondered how many others were never documented. Even some of those recovered do not appear in the indexes under the names stated in the papers (eg Margaret McGhie).

1922/F6428

Archibald James

McCorkindale

Initial newspaper reports listed 25 missing and dead but progressively bodies of many of the drowned were recovered. The magisterial inquiry is invaluable in providing more detail in regard to those who drowned. Those missing, and a few of those later identified, are included here:

Mr Archibald McCorkindale, late President of the Coorparoo Shire Council.

Mrs Best

Mrs Gould (possibly Emma Eliza 1896/B28991)

Mrs (Janet?) Wilson, wife of James Wilson, Russell St, South Brisbane. Ironically he could not swim, yet apparently she could as she tried to hold onto him until he struck something hard in the water. “I will stick to you Jim, I know you cannot swim”.[iv]

Mrs Nellie Harper, residing with Mr & Mrs Wilson, with her four children, cnr Grey &Russell Sts, body later found[v]. Nellie Harper, born England about 30 years old 1896/B28527. I wonder what happened to her children)

Mrs A B Renton (possibly Mary Jane 1896/B28470), Cordelia St, South Brisbane.

Mrs Pogson, Russell St South Brisbane (not on some lists –could this be Mrs Wilson?)

Mrs Kitty Matahbelle does not appear on the lists though she is mentioned in the inquiry. No registration under this surname.

Miss Ida Newman of Coorparoo (her death, under this name, is not registered)

Henry Archibald Jarman, nephew of Louisa Ellen Jarman (1896/B28534) Aged about 21, he had a lifebuoy which he handed over to his aunt saying “Here you take this and save yourself, I’ll be all right”

Mr H E Williams, Pastoral Butchering Company (registration not found)

Mr A G Williams (possibly George Alfred Foster Williams 1896/B29325)

Miss Marshall, Merton Rd

Harry Guzamai (also listed as Gurosomai/Guzomai). 1896/B29529. The bodies of the mother and another child, about 10 years old, were recovered. The mother was said to be a good swimmer.

Timothy O’Sullivan (9 years) (1896/B2856)(body recovered)

Infant child Priest

Mrs Taylor (possibly missing), an old lady, licensee of the Clarence Hotel, South Brisbane.

Hugh Kerr Colquhoun Morren (body recovered, 1896/B28535. His children Martha and her brother had been returning with their father from their mother’s funeral that afternoon. Both children survived the accident. He left a large family of young children[vi]).

If any of these names are relevant to your family it would be worth checking out the stories on this tragedy to get the full picture. So many evocative stories reminiscent of 2011’s disasters.

Back to task: if anyone knows anything more about Ida McCorkindale, her sister Ellen Sim McCorkindale, or brother Duncan McCorkindale, I’d really like to hear from you. Their parents were Duncan and Ida McCorkindale.

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[i] The Pearl was recovered from the bottom of the river on 5 March The Worker 14 March 1896. Image of it apparently in The Australasian. It was apparently set to be repaired.

[ii] The Brisbane Courier, 26 February 1896.

[iii] The Argus, 16 April 1896, page 5.

[iv] Magisterial enquiry evidence, The Brisbane Courier, 21 February 1896. Also initial news reports The Brisbane Courier 14 February 1896 including reference to the Harper children.

[v] The Brisbane Courier, 21 February 1896

[vi] Sydney Morning Herald 15 February 1896.

Bagpipe Appreciation Day

Darwin & Districts Pipes and Drums: Harmony Day festivities, Darwin, March 2011

Geneabloggers tells us that today is Bagpipe Appreciation Day so with bagpipes in my blood stream how could I let this go. I’ve posted before about my McCorkindale pipers, my grandmother’s brothers ..if you missed that post please have a look at the photos which I think are so evocative.  But to branch out today I thought I’d give you some photos of pipers from recent events. The first is the Darwin & Districts Pipes & Drums at the Harmony Day festivities at the Darwin Waterfront a few months ago. The others are from the recent International Tartan Daycelebrations in Brisbane

This bonnie wee tartan-clad bairn enjoyed every moment of the afternoon.

in early July. The bonnie wee lassie in the tartan absolutely loved her day and was enjoying the pipes as much as any of us. If you have bagpipes in your blood stream it’s just something you love while others find they sound like crazed cats. I can hear the pipes from a great distance and they call me in. They are stirring and can be melancholic, celebratory, or a call to arms, claymore in hand. Flower of Scotland!

The massed pipes included some very young pipers from the Queensland Police Juvenile Pipes and Drums (Cops in Kilts...love the slogan!)

Happy 150th Birthday, All Hallows’ School

All Hallows' School badge and crest

This weekend my Alma Mater, All Hallows’ School (AHS), has celebrated its 150^th anniversary. This may not seem much to those in the northern hemisphere but it remains one of Queensland’s oldest schools. The school was established by the Sisters of Mercy, led by Mother Vincent Whitty and five young nuns, who arrived on the Donald McKay with Bishop Quinn in 1861, having had only FOUR days to prepare for this amazing journey around the world. I read, to my surprise, that one of the nuns on this voyage was Sister Mary Benedict, the name of my own excellent science teacher in the final years of high school. The Sisters of Mercy hold as one of their precepts, service to the less advantaged, and in fact the school has always had a diversity of pupils. The example of the nuns has always included one of role modelling strong women’s leadership.

While the school is often thought of locally as a school for the wealthy or in the vernacular, a “snob” school, this is definitely not the case. My family is/was definitely not wealthy yet three generations have benefitted from the wonderful educational opportunities provided by All Hallows’.

The facilities have always been avant garde though perhaps they would not choose to describe them this way. Cutting edge language and science laboratories and a reference library were among the resources we had at our disposal. Of course there was always a strong emphasis on culture, music and theatre ie the art of being a young lady. I wonder how many schools produce their own classical music vinyl record? Unfortunately I was never talented at music though I notice a photo on the school’s pages of our senior year play includes one of the Shakespeare play we did. Of course there were also all sorts of strictures on appropriate behaviour which could generate an enormous kerfuffle when they were breached eg eating in public, not wearing hat and gloves etc.

View over All Hallows' from nearby rental accommodation.

However I can honestly say that my four years at All Hallows’ were a critical and wonderful part of my education as well as a pivotal part of my life’s experiences. Retrospectively I’d like to thank all those nuns, and they were pretty much all nuns, for the superb education they gave all of us. In particular Sr Mary Benedict for her excellent teaching in science and Sr Mary Borgia for German, even though science took precedence. Not to mention Sr Mary Marguerite, the school’s Principal during my era, who could bring you into line just by looking at you and not even raising her voice, but who was always incredibly fair.

I haven’t mentioned the religious elements of our education but for me that’s encapsulated in one thing. The atmosphere in the school chapel can send goosebumps up an “old girl’s” arms: the place is redolent with the spirits of generations of nuns and pupils past and present and is a truly special place.

The front altar of the All Hallows' Chapel

So many memories: friends’ birthday morning teas, cousins, parades, charity work, sports days, theatre outings, ecumenical events, oh yes, and learning. Of relevance to no one who hasn’t “lived” there yet with its position above the bridge and the river it has been part of Brisbane’s history for nearly 150 years (the first school was near the present cathedral). My own AHS-related memories include two of my earliest family history colleagues with whom I shared and learned research strategies and discoveries.

I’m proud to be an All Hallows’ girl  as the boarders’ song goes, though for me the school anthem, Angeli Archangeli is more emotional:  it’s bizarre how quickly the Latin words come back to you.

Oh, and for those who know Brisbane, no, the school walls weren’t built by convicts.

52 weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Week 26 -Songs: Beatlemania, Songs and the memories they evoke

Beatlemania, Brisbane, June 1964, from The Courier Mail’s The Way We Were site: http://waywewere.couriermail.com.au/29/6/1964 Crowds of fans waiting outside Lennons Hotel for The Beatles to arrive. Neg/no M1119 The Courier-Mail Photo Archive.

The topic for Week 26 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is Songs. What was the #1 song during the week of your birth? Enter your birth date at This Day in Music (http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/birthdayno1) and find out. If you were born before 1946, you can enter the year of your marriage, the birth dates of your children or some other or some other significant event.

As interesting as it was to use this site to find out the “top of the pops” on the day I was born, I didn’t want to post on that for privacy reasons. So I thought I’d blog about songs and some of the memory-associations.

In the context of pop songs, the first thing that came to mind was the visit of the Beatles to Brisbane in June 1964. Their concerts were held at Festival Hall in Brisbane and somewhat to my retrospective astonishment, I was permitted to go to one of the concerts with another of my friends who was also usually not permitted out at night alone. In fact so strange was this that I keep thinking my parents must have met us afterwards but try as I might I can’t bring this into the memory.  My girlfriend and I were seated fairly close to the front on the stadium on the left hand side from the stage….I remember we did the requisite screaming and carry-on typical of such events, though such over-arching popularity was possibly a relatively new phenomenon at the time. Somewhere among the bits and pieces in my memory box, I no doubt have my ticket stub and the program. (This link to Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum talks about the program).

If I recollect correctly I wore a deep-pink/red pinafore type dress over a white turtle neck sweater. Being well behaved we were not part of the groupie-gathering outside the stage door post-event, though I remember seeing the crowd there. Instead we went up to Chemist Roush and had a milk shake –they made amazing milk shakes in different flavours, in those anodised shakers that are becoming fashionable once again. Chemist Roush was up the Treasury end of Queen Street. In later years I visited Festival Hall to see Ballroom Dancing competitions and I know my husband also saw Cleo Laine there some years later.

People from Brisbane might find the Way We Were website hosted by The Courier Mail newspaper fascinating….I know did.

When you stop to think about it, it’s intriguing how memory is linked to music: Dean Martin and protest songs (strange combo!) remind me of my uni days, Bob Dylan is inextricably linked to a friend in Papua New Guinea, John Denver with a very young daughter singing “take me home west verginger (in lieu of West Virginia)”, another daughter in an early doco/film clip with Sara Storer, friends and the school kids in the river at Kalkaringi, Mozart’s 21^st (the Elvira Madigan theme song) for its association with our wedding and my mother-in-law, Bombora with the surfie craze of the 60s, Rambling Rose with ice skating, Neil Diamond with Hot August Night, Paul Simon and his Graceland album with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, A Woman’s Heart sitting in a restaurant in Dingle where we heard it first, and Mary Black with Australian Shane Howard singing Flesh and Blood (one of my all-time favourites) on a bus trip to Canberra and Shane singing it at the Melbourne Genie conference in 2003 to my great delight, seeing and hearing Capercaillie & Karen Matheson on TV in Edinburgh (very sadly, never in person/concert), Guinness concerts[i] in the 90s in Brisbane with everyone beating out the time and “rocking” with the craic, Rugby anthems and World Cups (Flower of Scotland[ii] and Ireland’s Call)….so many thought/memory associations. Sometimes a song track passes out of conscious memory for me until it’s heard somewhere else and then all of a sudden the thought association and memory links come flooding back. I suppose it proves how much all our senses play their different roles in our memories.

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[i] Officially the Guinness Celebration of Irish Music concerts.

[ii] As with Australia, this is not the official anthem, but like Waltzing Matilda it has the power to stir the crowds and is a heartfelt national sentiment, especially in this case when accompanied by bagpipes. As with the NZ rugby and the haka, it is rooted in national culture and feeling and is very powerful. Personally I suspect Aussies like Waltzing Matilda because it’s indecipherable to anyone else…but every state seems to have its own music version.

Since I wrote this story, the John Oxley Library blog has posted this story about the Beatles’ visit to Brisbane: http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2012/06/29/the-beatles-brisbane/

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History: Week 24: Clothes..maketh the woman?

Blue chiffon with a satin underlay and the top hand-beaded by my mother.

The topic for Week 24 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is Clothes. What types of clothes did you wear as a child? What was “in fashion” and did your style compare?

When I was a child my mother sewed all my clothes and she was a very good seamstress…there was nothing second-rate about the appearance of the finished garment. When I was about 12 (I think), I attended a Singer sewing class in Fortitude Valley where I learned to sew to a pattern and with Mum’s supervision I became quite competent. I know the class was during the August school holidays (we only had three terms then), and so I associate the class with the Ekka and ripe strawberries. During the class I made a lilac dress with a gathered skirt…not something I enjoyed making with all the hand-gathering that was required and meticulous adherence to the seam width and a straight sewing-line. I think that was the dress that I wore with an aqua mohair knitted bolero jacket. Mum really did not think that purple and blue were a serendipitous combination but I’ve always loved them –perhaps early feminist leanings? She was adamant that I wouldn’t/couldn’t wear it to Midnight Mass for Easter that year….but I did

When I was a young girl (maybe 12-ish??), rope petticoats were in fashion, to boost the swirl of your gathered skirt. The alternative was a layered net petticoat which had the same effect…mine was pink with a pink satin edging. I remember I had a blue skirt with white polka dots and a red umbrella appliquéd on it at this time. I seem to recall I wore it bowling, but is that an illusion? Then there was the phase where skirts had braces with embroidered ribbon on them –very “dirndl”/Austrian, but really a quite unattractive fashion.

Whenever I needed a new winter coat, every couple of years or so, Mum would make one up for me in woolen fabric though now it’s hard to believe it was necessary in a sub-tropical climate. I remember as a teenager being very pleased with a grey-blue suit that Mum made which had a pale grey “fur” collar.  Of course gloves, stockings, handbag, matching shoes, and hat were all part of a woman’s attire in those days for any going-out event.

When we would go for holidays to the beach it was de rigueur to have a beach over-shirt made, complete with bobble trim. Was it fashionable? I have no idea…it was just what we did.

Another strange phenomenon for any American readers is that I wore a uniform daily for all my school life, as well as to Guides on Saturdays. There simply wasn’t the need for a wide range of clothes on a daily basis. In high school a compulsory part of the uniform were the gloves and hat, and heaven help any young woman seen in public without them. There was the merest flicker of time before the Principal heard about it and the offender was called into order.

I don’t think I had a store-bought dress until I was in my mid/late teens and we bought a dress in patriotic red, white & blue with a white collar. How I loved that dress which would have been a nightmare to sew with all the stripes needing to be aligned. I used to wear it to ballroom dancing classes regularly. Another dress element that was popular at the time was a zip down the front of the dress –this was the 1960s. The guys at Wrightson’s Dance Studios thought it hilarious to (try to) pull the zip down. However I wasn’t well brought up for nothing –I’d preempted them with a pin across the zip so their “evil” plan was averted. A skirt cut on the bias was also a great one for dancing the jive.

Which in turn reminds me that those stories about nuns and patent leather shoes are true….they did tell you the boys would use the reflection to look up your skirt

This dress I made was an early maxi-length and I really liked how it turned out.

Prior to Vatican II it was also typical for women and girls to wear hats to Mass, and I remember one in particular with gathered net on it…sounds repulsive but it wasn’t all that bad. Subsequently mantillas became acceptable and women/girls would wear one of these in lieu of a hat. By the time I married hats rather than veils were (theoretically at least) acceptable for the bride to wear. Giving the timeline away, our wedding photos are stereotypical in that even the mothers of the happy couple had incredibly short skirts. I was lucky to be tall and thin with long legs when the mini-skirt was in vogue: it wasn’t always an attractive option.  I remember when Jean Shrimpton (not Twiggy, whoops) wore a micro-mini (aka Hello Officer!) to the Melbourne Cup –what consternation it caused even though she looked great!

Mum also made my formal and semi-formal outfits for the school dances and one included a myriad of beading far more complex than my wedding dress which she also made….I was going through a “plain” phase. My favourite-ever was a Vogue-pattern ball frock that I wore to the Science Ball in first year university. In pink lamé (?) fabric, cut away shoulders, and an unusual skirt style, it is still top of the pops for me.

I repeated much of this sewing behaviour when my daughters were born, though Mum also sewed for them. Admittedly we were living where bought clothes were hard to come by, but training and habits die hard. I’m not sure that the darling daughters were always enamoured by this habit as sewing was never a passion for me and could send me into a right tizz. Why oh why did I choose velvet for one daughter’s formal then repeat my stupidity with my youngest’s Audrey Hepburn-lookalike gown.

My photo this week is of our middle daughter’s baptism, in our house in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, on our eldest daughter’s second birthday. While paisley was absolutely all the rage at the time, my daughters cringe when they see this photo! And here it is again just to haunt them.

Paisley Peril -is that small girl laughing at us? Even the white tie had a paisley pattern.

When I look at photos of them, or me, I remember the fabric, the dress, the event and the pattern. The ice skating costumes, the childhood dresses, the formal gowns and everything in between: I’ve often wished I’d kept leftover fabric swatches as I think they’d have made a nice quilt with a story attached to each….assuming I did quilting!

Minis, maxis, cork soles, platforms, wineglass heels, boots, sandals, scoop necks, empire, drop-waist, pencil skirts, rope petticoats, net petticoats, gypsy skirts, braces with embroidery, lace collars, paisley, flowers (fabrics and hair), shawls, Nehru jackets, straight-leg, bell bottoms, pashminas, pastels, reds, purples, oranges, crochet ponchos: in fashion/out of fashion/back in again. How does anyone keep up with it all? As the decades pass there’s a prevailing sense of déjà vu. I’m not really into fashion but it’s a revelation to think back over the various fashion styles and favourite outfits.

Thank heavens I now live in the relaxed Tropics where most of the year, the prevailing criteria are whether your clothes are cool and comfortable! Mind you it dropped to 16 this morning and long sleeves and trousers were required…I know, don’t laugh.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History: Week 23: Books ( a lifelong addiction!)

Kittykins Capers

The topic for Week 23 in Amy Coffin’s and Geneablogger’s 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History series is Books. What was your favorite book, or who was your favorite author from your childhood? What do you like to read now? Books or other formats?

This is the topic I’ve been waiting for all year…books have been my passion, and a source of delight and sometimes envy all my life. However I admit that as I’m just emerging from two weeks of cataloguing and (mostly) packing up my library, both family history and general, in preparation for new carpets and paint, I’m feeling a little less enthused about the hundreds of books I have. Mind you, it’s a case of be careful what you wish for: as a child I was soooo envious of a neighbour’s glass-doored book case complete with aged books. With a book in your hand, you’re never at a loss for inspiration.

A birthday or Christmas without a book would definitely have been a disappointment. Remember those compilation books: the Girls Own Annual and the like which were around a lot “back when”? I still have some of my old books from childhood to share with my grandchildren. There were also quite a few books which had a fold-out element, like this one called Kittikins Capers.

Kittykins Capers - fold out book

I think my favourite book as a child was Heidi as it combined two things: the concept of a different world far away (with snow!) and a Germanic influence which fitted with my name of origin. It seemed quite quaint for a child to be high in the mountains with only her grandfather, a friend and some goats for company. I still have the copy I was given as a child, as well as a copy on Kindle.

As I grew older I also liked the Trixie Belden books and crime novels have been a consistent thread in my reading life. Mind you, I’m not often good at sussing out the baddie. However it was then, and is now, rare for me to start and book and just “give up” on it though occasionally one will be put aside for a while. None of this is to suggest that I remember all that I read –I certainly don’t, but I tell myself it’s all buried somewhere in the grey matter. I loved it when our neighbours took me to the local library, which was some distance away, and I could indulge in a much wider range of books.

 

Then when I was I was a teenager, and at school in the city, I could join the School of Arts library in Ann St, Brisbane and uncover more books and ideas. What I didn’t know then, and probably wouldn’t have cared about given I was science-oriented, was that it “was originally known as the Servants Home which provided accomodation for single adult females who had migrated to Queensland and were awaiting employment as domestic servants”[i] something I’d like to learn more about. In the 1960s it had a very boring exterior without the wonderful lacework and verandahs and with shops at the entry. Inside it was a fabulous old library (from c1878) with a mezzanine-style gallery which ran around the walls above the main area, and ladders to get to the books. I loved it!

Brisbane;s School of Arts in Ann Street, circa 1925, John Oxley Library negative 202751, copyright expired.

One summer I read all of the leather-bound Charles Dickens novels that my cousin was storing in my bedroom….one way to amuse oneself for six weeks. These days I like to read something that’s a bit different. I still read crime for its escapism and have a severe dose of “author-itis”, reading everything published by my favourite authors. Of course history books feature prominently in my collection these days to complement my family and local history research. While I did enjoy Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, I enjoyed the background book, Searching for the Secret River, even more. The things that struck me were the length of time and craftmanship to bring this book to birth.  I’m sure most family historians could identify with the search behind the book and be amused by her protests that she wasn’t one of those grey-haired family historians (I’d provide the precise quote except that the book is currently packed away but that was the essence of it).

Another book I thoroughly enjoyed was Diane Armstrong’s Voyage of Their Life, for the innovation of tracing the story of the Post-War passengers on board the SS Derna.

Nothing really beats holding a book in your hand, but this year I’ve ventured into the realms of e-reading. I’ve bought a Kindle which is light-weight and long-lived, but isn’t as enjoyable to read from as my husband’s iPad which I “borrow”: perhaps part of the pleasure of the iPad is being able to see the covers in living colour, giving more a sense of reading a book. However, the sheer convenience of being able to go on holiday with a swag of books but with no additional load to carry is wonderful. It also means I don’t have that eternal compromise over bookshelf storage. A further benefit is that even if the flight is delayed you’ve still got lots to read…except in the limbo land before and during landing/takeoff.

However I can’t quite bring myself to imagine a life that is free of a traditional book. Probably just as well as many of the ones I want to read aren’t available in e-reader format. For me heaven must be something like Trinity College’s Old Library in Dublin with its serried ranks of books on oak bookshelves flanked by marble busts, and that particular fragrance that goes with masses of aged books

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[i] John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative Number 202751

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