waterways

In the forty years after Federation the most noticeable incursion of new settlers were the Soldier Settlers who came to the Boyne Valley after the war. Fifty-four families, with little or no farming experience attempted to farm very small areas. Before long most of them moved to more lucrative and certain incomes elsewhere. There were still two newspapers though The Advocate had been replaced by the Daily Times. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Bank of New South Wales and the Queensland Bank all had branches in town; and there were two private hospitals and a chemist. Shops were numerous, and seem to have been larger. Friends store was well established, serving a much greater clientele than the town and there was a Cash & Carry, several butchers, bakers and car dealers. In a sign of real maturity in the town, the Post Office Directory lists a 'French Beauty Saloon' (though for 1939 it mentions only nine women by name). In short, everything was in place for the town to deal with the next wave, a population increase that was occasioned by the Second World War. Source: gragm.qld.gov.au/media/1017/waves-of-settlement-1901-1939...

this station still around today?

In the year of Australia's Federation, Gladstone was a small country town on a glorious seafront, described as 'one of the finest natural harbors in Australia' (Pugh's Almanac 1907). The town seems to have been a thriving commercial and administrative centre. The Post Office Directory 1901 lists: * five hotels, four churches *one bank (Commercial Bank of Sydney), and two newspapers (The Observer and The Advocate). * a State School with 110 pupils, and one run by the Sisters of Mercy (with 150 pupils when it opened in 1900, which became Our Lady, Star of the Sea in 1902). * at least one doctor and one architect, a barrister and a couple of lawyers, numerous tradesmen and businesses, including several saw mills and a manufacturer of aerated water. * a public hospital, a School of Arts, a Chamber of Commerce, a manganese mine, and of course, the Gladstone Meat works. In 1911 electricity came, with the lighting of the Meat works jetty, and by 1916 town supply commenced under a franchise agreement. Roads only slowly improved, and not until 1929 was there any bitumen (Goondoon and Auckland Streets). In 1914 the Harbour Board was formed to be restructured in 1926 to represent Gladstone, Calliope and Miriam Vale communities. In 1926 the Gladstone Butter Factory became the Port Curtis Dairy Association and its first shipment of butter went overseas. In 1920 the CWA built a holiday house on Barney Point, and in 1936 opened their own rooms in town. The first open air theatre was opened in 1922, and in 1927 the QATB and Fire Brigade moved into a purpose-built accommodation in Goondoon Street. The following year the British Imperial Oil Company occupied premises at Auckland Point. Source: gragm.qld.gov.au/media/1017/waves-of-settlement-1901-1939...