Identifying our history through Picture Ipswich
Picture Ipswich is an online database of images operated by the Ipswich Library and Information Service which captures the lifestyle and history of Ipswich. Many of the images in Picture Ipswich have been kindly provided by the community. The two pictures of kilns below were taken in 1970....
Wintergarden Theatre
Over the years Ipswich has had many picture theatres including the Olympia Theatre in East Street – renamed the Tivoli in 1927, The Garden Theatre in Silkstone, the Rialto in North Ipswich, the National Hall and the Alpha in Booval, Parkside in Brisbane Street and The Lyric,...
From Limestone to Ipswich
We recently had a query from Ipswich, England asking how our city was named and whether we were connected directly with their town. I found an answer for them on the Ipswich City Council website, listed under their history section, ‘suburbs and place names’. “The first name for...
Back to school
As parents of school-aged children are all aware, it’s coming to the end of the school holidays and time to send them back to school. Education has always been important to Ipswich parents and there have been many schools built in Ipswich. Here is one that is...
On the buses in Ipswich
Horse-drawn buses were used early in the 1900s by Ipswich residents to travel between Ipswich and Blackstone. Public motor transport first made an appearance in Ipswich around the 1920s when Messrs J.J. and J.R. Little tried in 1919 to purchase the horse bus company then in operation. Their...
Interested in researching your family history?
For anyone interested in researching their family history, the library now has access to the Ancestry Library Edition database. This database is similar to Ancestry.com and includes census, voter, birth, death & marriage, military & immigration records for Australia, the U.K., U.S., Canada and a number of European...
Identifying our history through Picture Ipswich
Picture Ipswich is an online database of images operated by the Ipswich Library and Information Service which captures the lifestyle and history of Ipswich. Many of the images in Picture Ipswich have been kindly provided by the community. We are always looking for photographs depicting the life and...
Christmas in Ipswich
Christmas and New Year celebrations in Ipswich appear to have remained the same over the years. The Moreton Bay Courier in 1855 reported that Christmas was signalised by churchgoing, tranquil domestic festivity and cricket matches, and that the advent of the New Year was first announced by a...
Rosewood ghost
On Saturday 7 January,1914 the original Rosewood Hotel in John Street was destroyed by fire despite the efforts of locals. The history of the present day Rosewood Hotel, known as the Middle Pub, includes continual references to its “water ghost”. Sheets of water have been seen flowing...