victoria

Some interesting facts about Brisbane's public transport through history: TRAMS AND TRAINS Until 1885 Brisbane was a 'walking city. There was a train from the city to Ipswich in 1875, but this was mainly an appendage to the Darling Downs freight service into Ipswich. A line to Sandgate through Fortitude Valley was primarily a Sandgate service, as the seaside village had been started early by speculators as a watering place for town dwellers. A horse tram service began in 1885, running from North Quay to Exhibition and Breakfast Creek Road. Within the next four years, the service was extended to New Farm, the Bulimba Ferry (Teneriffe), West End, and Woolloongabba. The beginning of an urban railway network was laid down, to Cleveland (1889) and from Corinda to Stanley Street, via Dutton Park (1884). A train journey into South Brisbane from Dutton Park was started in 1891. Between 1881 and 1891 metropolitan Brisbane's population grew from 37,000 to 100,000. The horse-drawn trams were replaced with an electric system in 1897, running from Logan Road to Victoria Bridge. By 1904 there were electric services to Red Hill, Ascot, Kelvin Grove, Clayfield, East Brisbane, Newmarket, and Toowong. Affluent residents of New Farm and the gentlemen's villas along Milton Road, and workers at West End could now catch a tram into town. The concept of greater Brisbane was gaining currency. The metropolitan area had a population of nearly 120,000 in 1901, compared with nearly 29,000 in the Brisbane municipality and 25,500 in South Brisbane. Source: queenslandplaces.com.au/brisbane-and-greater-brisbane

The original Victoria Hotel was a modest single-storey wooden building with a shingle roof. Hitching posts and horse troughs flanked the intersecting dirt tracks that are today’s Marshall and Herbert Streets. In the 1920’s William Pendock and his wife Margaret bought the little pub and made sweeping changes. As their daughter-in-law, Mrs Nellie Pendock tells today, “Every now and again they added a few rooms – until they had fifty!” Master builder Bill Bell practically rebuilt the Victoria Hotel. He created a sturdy building of brick and timber, with a criss-cross of dark paneling and white lattice on its facades, stained glass windows and doorways, and an ornamental (and slight off-kilter) tower to top it off. An eye-catching building indeed: a picturesque mix of Victoriana and Jazz Age, with a dash of Early Colonial, and still looks much the same today. The Pendock family was associated with “The Vic” for three generations before selling it in the 1960s to Mr. George Pippos. George Pippos was a member of the syndicate who raced Gunsynd and he named his new Gunsynd Lounge after the champion. He also made many other improvements, smoothly blending the old with the new. Large clear windows have replaced the stained glass, but the main entrance still has its art deco front door, and the graceful panels of Art Nouveau glass still adorn shop fronts in the hotel building. The wide verandahs today are still unchanged – a superb vantage point for street processions! There are stories of horsemen riding into the bar and lassoing bottles from the shelves in the old days. It is certainly true that a customer took his boat into the bar during the 1956 floods. The crowd loved it. The Endeavour Group are the current owners who purchased the hotel from John and Michelle Klein, previous owners of fourteen years. Along with Michael Bell (current builder and Great Grandson of Original Builder), the Klein’s saved the hotel from demolishment after it closed in 2005 due to “not trading well” and made a painstaking effort to restore “The Good Old Vic”. Source: www.victoriahotelgoondiwindi.com.au/history#:~:text=The%2....

The guy's ready to rock. Well, more or less.

Great work. Keep them coming

Rest in peace lad.

Private Angus's army records are available from the National Archives of Australia: recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.a... His CWGC entry: www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1457514/ANGUS,%20GEOR... Born: Amherst, Victoria (near Talbot) Parents: Thomas and Jane Angus, of Majorca, Victoria Trade: Blacksmith Next of kin: Jane Angus (mother), Majorca, Victoria Religious denomination: Presbyterian Joined up: Majorca, Victoria, 17 July 1915, aged 21, Service No: 4127 Embarked: Melbourne, 29 December 1915, on HMAT A64 "Demosthenes" Regiment: 1st Australian Divisional Pioneer Battalion, AIF (late 13th Reinforcements, 6th Battalion, AIF) Died: 21 August 1916, France (killed in action), aged 22 Memorial: Name recorded on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial, Somme, France.