glorious

St John's Cathedral is a heritage site with cultural splendour unrivalled in Brisbane. With gothic-revival architecture, the foundation stone was laid in 1901 and the cathedral was finally finished 108 years later in 2009. The Cathedral features wood-carvings, stained-glass, 350 million year old limestone and the only fully stone-vaulted ceiling in the southern hemisphere. The Cathedral's font contains pillars of fossiliferous limestone 350 million years old from Frosterley, United Kingdom, in which skeletons of Coral polyps and bi-valve shells are clearly visible. Every window in the cathedral is of significance: from the large early 20th-century Wheel window to the collection of William Bustard's work, and then the later vibrant windows of David Saunders. The Millennium Window, designed by Scott Maxwell and made by Warwick Blair, was installed in 2001. The Cathedral has 12 huge bells dating back to 1876. You can hear them ringing before the 9.30 am Sunday service and for weddings. St John’s contains one of Queensland’s more notable collections of memorials to the First and Second World Wars. There is an ANZAC-emblazoned flag hanging in the South Transept that was the very last flag flown at the evacuation of the Anzacs from Gallipoli on 19th December 1915. Source: www.visitbrisbane.com.au/the-city/things-to-do/arts-and-e...

Only a short drive from Brisbane are a patchwork of towns and villages in the hill country they like to call the hinterland. In early European days before air-conditioning, they offered a refreshing retreat from coastal heat for people used to more temperate climates. Their purpose was a bit like the hill stations of British India. Among the least-known to outsiders are two tiny settlements, so close to Brisbane they could easily have been swallowed by urban sprawl if not for a national park. The closest, on the edge of the rainforest is Mount Nebo. A bit higher and right in the rainforest centre, is the magnificently named Mount Glorious. Source: www.traveller.com.au/beyond-brisbane-its-glorious-gaiq

In the early 1900s, people began riding up to Mt Glorious from the eastern valleys below and began growing bananas and other crops. The first building at Mt Glorious, erected around 1909, was Tom Lindsay’s “Gentle Breezes”. In October 2009 the Mt Glorious community celebrated the centenary of European settlement at Mt Glorious. Preparation for the centenary included some historical research and gathering of stories concerning Lindsay and others who followed. The following is an extract from resident Ruth Lowe’s, Tom Lindsay: first settler’s house on Mt Glorious, Centenary celebrations 2009. "Helen Horton’s book Brisbane’s Back Door mentions the early development of Mt Glorious and describes how Thomas Lindsay “rode up the Cedar Creek spur by Mt O’Reilly to a place he liked on the top of the range. He called it Gentle Breezes.” After taking over the selection in 1908 he moved up to the land and lived in a tent. He appears to have worked, with the help of Charles Patrick in clearing the land and putting in a dairy herd. Helen Horton continues: “Later Charles Patrick accepted Lindsay’s further offer to take his family and live in the five-roomed slab hut, with separate kitchen, which had by this time replaced the tent. (See above photo). With a verandah at the front, it was reasonably comfortable, but it had a separate kitchen made of stringybark sheets that was quite some distance from the hut.” “The first house on Mt Glorious was built ‘around 1911’ [erased and replaced with ‘1909’] by Mr Tom Lindsay. The house took him from 12 to 18 months to build …” The letter continues: …”the family accepted the offer and moved to Mt Glorious around 1912.” At that time their family numbered eight children. In his description of the eventful wagon trip up the mountain with the furniture Bill Patrick mentions ‘the baby’, who was probably Phyllis Patrick, born 16.5.1910, mother of Pat Berlin the author of the letter." Source: www.mtnebo.org.au/history-of-european-settlement/