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...
Colleges Crossing
The Brisbane Courier reported on Friday 14 January 1927, that the Moreton Shire Council had been appointed as trustee for about 67 acres at Colleges Crossing. The land was reserved for recreational purposes. In January 1939 the Courier Mail reported the landing of a 4ft 6in bluenose...
An Ipswich Hero
Mavis Parkinson Mavis Parkinson was born in Ipswich on 10 November 1915 and from an early age wanted to be a missionary for the Church of England. Her parents refused to let her go until she turned 21 years of age. After training in Brisbane and Sydney, she...
The Whitehead Legacy
A beautiful coffee table book has been launched, called “The Whitehead Legacy”. The Whitehead family have lived and worked as photographers in Ipswich since 1883. The book contains photographs covering people, streetscapes, buildings, transport, historic buildings and industry. In short a beautiful trip through the history of Ipswich,...