The National Trusts’ Great Houses of Ipswich 2016
For the past several years the Queensland branch of the National Trust have held a Great Houses of Ipswich event to acknowledge and allow people to view the amazing houses the Ipswich suburbs are home to and famous for. In previous years houses that have been generously opened...
Uncanny Ipswich
Over the years Ipswich has been host to a number of uncanny, and sometimes unexplained, occurrences. A browse of old Queensland Times issues reveals mysterious lights in the sky, spooky apparitions appearing in the dead of night, and strange weather incidents. Raining fish In May 1930 it rained...
History of Hats
Before the 1960’s hats were an essential part of anyone’s wardrobe. From the busy streets of London to the Country roads of Ipswich, no man, woman or child would be seen leaving the house without donning a fashionable or at least an appropriate piece of headwear. For some it was purely a...
Jim Finimore – Ipswich Mayor and Dentist
The life of Mr J.T. Finimore former, Mayor and local Dentist in the Ipswich region, is one of great interest. James Thomas Finimore was born in North Ipswich in 1906 and was educated at the local North Ipswich State School and the Ipswich Grammar School. In 1928 at the age of...
The Ipswich Railway Workshops Dining Room
The Ipswich Railway Workshops was the centre of rail construction, maintenance and technology in Queensland for decades. Over 200 steam locomotives were constructed there and during its peak over 3,000 people worked on the site. Timber buildings were purposely built to house the timekeepers, administrative and drafting offices...
In Search of Ancient Queensland: a Queensland Museum Guide
This beautifully illustrated book, recently published by the Queensland Museum, looks at life and major geological events in Queensland over the past 250 million years. The oldest record of dinosaurs in Australia are footprints of theropod (carnivorous) dinosaurs discovered in a coal mine at Ipswich during the 1950s...
The Fateful Voyage of the ‘Nerita’
The disappearance of the motor launch ‘Nerita’ in Moreton Bay is known as one of Ipswich’s worst civil disasters . For those of you who are not familiar with this tragic event in Ipswich’s history, the fateful voyage of the 45 foot motor boat ‘Nerita’ at 2pm on...
Henry and Pearl Bates
Henry Bates was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England in 1895, to parents Henry and Sarah Bates. He immigrated to Australia and lived in Harcourt, Victoria, working as a labourer. He enlisted into the Australian Imperial Army on 20 June, 1916 at the age of 22, and embarked for...
Miss Gordon – Ipswich Missionary and Martyr
One of the many interesting aspects of our work here at Ipswich Libraries, is the unexpected directions in which our endeavours take us. While researching information about Australian quilts, one of our colleagues came across an entry on the National Museum of Australia’s website which mentions a rare autograph quilt. In the...