Is Cremorne the most beautiful Queenslander home in 2023?

Cremorne House in Hamilton Brisbane

built in 1905, expanded since

news.com.au

Queenslander Houses were built in an architectural style very popular throughout Queensland, from Brisbane in the south to the tip of Cape York. The style was common from the 1840s until the post-WW2 era and was mainly used in residential build­ings. Plus I have seen some very beautiful Queenslander Pubs with gorgeous wrought iron lace work/filigree wrapped around the balconies.

Two elements best differ­entiated the Queenslanders from homes in the southern, cooler states: a] they had wide and long verandas, and large double doors which opened onto these verandas. And b] they were typically raised on vertical timber stumps. The use of timber stumps went into disfavour in the post–WW2 era bec­ause any new stumps or any replacements for old stumps must now be steel or concrete. Being built on stumps prevented the homes being inundated in flood prone areas, particularly in the older suburbs.

In pre-air conditioning days, Queenslander Homes made the most of passive climate control. Any breeze that arrived in the summer ev­enings blew underneath the raised houses and increased the ventil­ation. Internally the large doors and windows were lined up inter­nally, once again to increase any natural ventilation, and windows were often louvered to allow for air circulation. The breezeway fretwork design, above the doorways, allowed for moving breezes

Roofs were generally made of corrugated iron or tin, and external walls were clad with timber. The verandas were as wide as possible, to protect against the over­head summer sun and to increase shade. Very often subtropical trees were planted close to the outer walls. The space under the house, raised high on stumps, created space for children to use on days when it was too rainy to go out­side.

The biggest building boom was after soldiers return­ed from WW1. By the time they had returned to civilian life in 1919, then entered studies and marriage, many new houses were needed thr­oughout the 1920s-early 1930s. Families with money built more extr­avagant Queenslanders, still with the wide verandas and under house playing space, but with gazebos, corner bays and exotic roof lines.

Queenslanders were not identical in shape. Asymmetry could be used and the gable could be placed to one side of the main roof. There were usually 2 ver­andas but they too could be asymmetrical; one was at the front, and the second ran down one side of the home.

Overlooking the beautiful Brisbane River

Real Estate Conversation

Now let me look at a luxury Queenslander I'd never seen before, in the very affluent Brisbane suburb of Hamilton and in one of the city’s most expensive streets. Cremorne is a heritage-listed mansion that was designed by Eaton & Bates, and built in 1905-6 for Brisbane publican James O’Connor. The original home fea­tured Colonial-era architecture, including a veranda complete with octag­onal rotundas, beautifully overlooking the Brisbane River with am­azing 180-degree views from up on Hamilton Hill.

Brisbane's architectural history was might have been destroyed in the 1960s-80s with the demolition of important cultural build­ings and the removal of c1000 Queens­lander homes per year. I clearly re­member the Nov 1982 crisis when the destroyers moved in to wipe out Brisbane’s iconic Cloudland. I won­d­ered back then if there was any heritage overlay for surviving Queenslanders but fortunately Cremorne was added to the Register in Oct 1992.

Luckily Cremorne survived and for three generations it remained in the family. In 1998 former Bretts Wharf restaurant co-owner Genny Nielson bought it. During her tenure, Nielson lovingly restored the home to its former glory and added a modern extension with archit­ect Brian Donovan, retaining the charm and character of the Queens­lander but adding modern luxury essentials eg a wine cellar.

Then it was bought for $6.6 mill by Fonezone co-founder David Mc­Mahon in 2015 and was ren­ovated  and ext­ended to re-create a glam­orous residence. Set on 2400 sq m, the property spans two lev­els, has many large livingrooms, 3.8m high ceilings, intricate cornices and ceiling roses, stained-glass windows, original fire­places and chandeliers.

A loungeroom with original ceiling decoration, stained glass windows and fireplace.

Real Estate Conversation

 Then Galen and Lynda Gunn paid $6 mill for the pro­p­erty in 2017. Ga­l­en came from a Qld gr­azing dynasty; grand­father Sir William Gunn was a ren­owned wool and cattle identity. La­t­er the Gunns co-founded an av­iat­ion company that uses technology to prov­ide aerial survey serv­ices to the pow­erline and utility sec­t­ors ac­ross the country. The grand colonial resid­ence has a very recent con­temporary archit­ectural extension and ...did I say the views from the sweeping ver­an­das are incredible?

This historic house sold for $8m in June 2023.

At least Australia had no Trump or Bolsonaro! Oh really???

Joh and Flo Bjelke Petersen

Courier Mail, 1996

The STATE politician Johannes Joh Bjelke-Petersen (1911-2005) ser­ved as Queensland Premier for 20 years. He was born in New Zealand and immigrated with his Dan­ish Lutheran pastor fam­ily in 1913. In Qld Joh left school at 13, remaining a peanut farmer at his Kingaroy home where he pioneered aerial spraying and seeding

Joh entered Parliament as a Country Party-National Party member in 1947. He first entered the Cabinet as Min­ister for Works & Housing in 1963, and became Premier in 1968. The controver­sial Bjelke-Petersen dominated Qld politics for 20 years, an out­spoken reactionary with clear hostility to civil rights, environment, soc­ial wel­fare, org­anised unions and land rights for Aborigines.

His favouritism towards big business in Qld was even clearer and like many pop­ul­ists, he was impatient and con­fron­t­ational with parl­iam­en­tary proced­ur­es: he abused parl­iam­entary ar­rangements, denied the Opposition its le­gitimate access to facilities, suppres­sed deb­ate, denied in­form­ation to the media and often for­ced ill-conceived, hastily drafted legis­lat­ion through Parliament.

Queensland was the only Australian state that didn’t have an Upper House; its unicameral parliament meant the normal checks and bal­an­ces were absent. Worse still were: the weak Labour Party opposit­ion; Bjelke-Petersen's total control over his Conservative Liberal Party coalition partner; and his dominat­ion of the Cabinet room.

In the tradition of agrarian populist politicians, Joh did­n’t worry about his inability to articulate. His fav­our­ite answer to ANY question: Now, don't you worry about that

Among crises that brought him to attention at a national le­vel, in 1971 he declared a state of emergency in Queensland as a re­action to demonstrations against touring South African Rugby Union Springboks.

In 1972-5, Bjelke-Petersen clashed with the Federal Labour Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Joh established himself as a maj­or political figure and a strong voice for states' rights, ded­icating himself to one cause: the obstruction and destruction of the first Federal Labour government since 1949. In 1975 he played a key part in under­min­ing that Labour government; in defiance of est­ab­lished tradition, Bjelke-Petersen selected his own candidate to fill a cas­ual Senate vacancy in the Federal Parliament, thwarting Labour's at­tempt to gain a Senate majority. His plot was crit­ical to the events leading to Gough Whitlam being sacked as Prime Minister in Nov 1975.

Police dragged protesters into gaol

"How far with Bjelke-Petersen go?"

Nation Review, 1977

Bjelke-Petersen continued his tough right-wing policies. In Sept 1977 he banned political protests, leading to cl­ash­es with uranium protesters, unionists, students, liberals and mostly women. He showed little concern for heritage and environmental is­s­ues, attracting public fury over the 1979 dem­olition of Brisbane's hist­oric Bellevue Hotel, and favouring oil drilling IN the Great Barrier Reef. He revealed a mor­alistic stroke, ban­ning Play­boy magazine, opposing school sex educ­ation and condom ven­d­ing mach­ines, and trying to ban women flying interstate for abortions 1980. He tried to ban gay teachers from being employed in schools.

Bellevue Hotel Brisbane

built 1885, demolished 1972

State Library Qld

His wife Florence/Flo was seen as an integral part of Joh's polit­ic­al life. As an extension of his political perf­orm­ance, Flo was un­wav­ering in her partisanship. She was elected to the Federal Senate in 1980 as a National Party member for Queensland, commanding resp­ect in her own right while being seen as Joh's “Federal rep”.

He also rel­ied on corrupt­ police to prop up his govern­ment. Dissenters faced police brutality in the streets. Repressive laws that banned protests meant tak­ing to the streets could result in im­prisonment for protesters and the media. In 1980, despite crit­ic­ism by lawyers and civil lib­er­t­ies groups, Joh’s new Pol­ice Act further empowered the police.

In 1983 Bjelke-Petersen led his National Party to a vic­tory where he formed a one-party state government, rather than gov­erning in coal­ition with the Conservative Liberal Party. Owing to Qld’s electoral gerrymander, small populated rural el­ect­orates dominated highly pop­ulated urban ones i.e the National Party won with 39% of the vote, while Labour lost on 44%. This biased system, a Bjelke-mander, oper­ated in total def­iance of the principle of one person one vote.

In 1986 Bjelke-Petersen sensed a loss of direction at the Federal level among the con­servatives. He led a campaign, Joh for PM, to have himself elected to Federal Parliament. But Jo’s bid for pow­er split the Federal Coal­ition.

In May 1987, ABC tv prog­r­amme Four Corners aired the first public allegations of organised crime and police corruption in Qld. Cap­it­alising on the Conservat­ive’s internal dissent, Labour’s Bob Hawke easily won the 1987 Federal election!

The story didn't end for Bjelke-Petersen. In Sep 1991, he was tried for corruption and perjury, but a hung jury set Joh free. [The jury foreman, a member of Bjelke-Petersen's National Party, had assisted in fund-raising for Joh’s legal expenses]. Soon the Qld government amended the Jury Act and set up a permanent criminal justice commission.

The media announced the resignation of premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen 

and police commissioner Terry Lewis.

Courier-Mail, 1987

Summary
Bjelke-Petersen’s reign as Queensland’s premier began in 1968 and ended ingloriously in 1987 with the Fitzgerald Inquiry in­to pol­ice corruption. Over 2 years, they un­cov­ered a deep web of corr­upt­ion implicating many at the high­est levels of government and police.

Joh was certainly guided by a shrewd politic­al aw­are­ness. He styled himself as a defender of a unique Qld sens­ib­il­ity and scorned the pro­g­res­sive states, using fear and prejud­ice for el­ec­toral gain. Qu­een­s­l­and’s longest-serving premier left a difficult, undemocr­at­ic leg­acy.

Many thanks to Your Dictionary, ABC News and The Conversation 

Australia's deadly floods, October 2022

Australia is a continent that is arid over 70% of the land. Even in the 30% with rivers and trees, it is mostly known for its constant, very dangerous bush fires. But now we have to examine the three main types of flooding Australia has had.

 Townsville, Qld

npr

Maryborough, Queensland

Floodlist

1.Riverine floods are the most common form. The two main contrib­ut­ors to riverine flooding are heavy rainfall and the land’s capacity to absorb water. When the land is satur­ated, the excess water flows into river systems and pushes the overflow onto the adjacent low-lying areas.

2.Flash floods occur from short intense bursts of rainfall, as during a thunderstorm. They can be particularly dangerous in ur­ban areas where drainage systems cannot cope with the amount of water. As the water rises quickly, the drainage system may have insuffic­ient capacity or time to cope with the downpour. Alth­ough flash floods are generally localised, they may pose a signif­icant threat because of their short duration and unpredictability.

3.Coastal floods happen when a low-pressure system or strong onshore winds force sea levels to rise above normal levels, creating a storm surge that floods low-lying areas. All type of floods can be class­if­ied as minor, moderate or major bas­ed on their impact on communit­ies and infrastructure.

Floods occur all over Australia, however different types of floods are common in different regions. Location determines what type of flooding is likely to experienced: river, flash or costal flooding or a combination. In the extensive flat inland regions, floods may spread over thousands of square ks and last sev­eral weeks.

The damage from floods can be varied, extensive and far reach­­ing. The immediate impacts of flooding include loss of human life, long term damage to property, crop destruction and loss of live­stock. The ongoing emotional impact is often terrible, as are the em­otional st­ress and physical illness from waterborne diseases. Floods also dam­age power transmission and sometimes power gener­at­ion, which then has knock-on effects caused by the loss of power.

The 2022 flooding was caused by a low pressure system over Queens­land's southern coast that dragged in moisture from the Coral Sea in the north, raising it over the Queensland coastline. The low press­ure trough delivered the rainfall but an area of colder air higher in the atmosphere was drifting in, making the atmosphere unstable and permitting moisture to be lifted up and dropped as heavy rain. 

Hawkesbury River, New South Wales

Desdemona Despair

Lismore, NSW

 

The 2022 eastern Australia floods were one of the nation's worst re­corded flood disasters that occurred in S.E Queensland and in­to coast­­al NSW. Brisbane suff­ered major flooding, as did the cities of Maryborough, Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Cab­oolture, Too­woomba, Ips­wich, Logan City, Gold Coast, Murwillumbah, Mullum­bim­by, Grafton, Byron Bay, Ball­ina, Lis­more, Central Coast and Sydney. Clearly as the system headed south, it turned into an East Coast Low near New South Wales/NSW’s Central Coast and Sydney. It will not surprise anyone that Sydney received more rainfall this October than any other October total in almost 170 years of record-keeping.

22 people so far have died in the 2022 floods. Across S.E Queens­l­and, 1000 schools were closed in response to the flood­ing, evac­uat­ions were urgent and the public had to avoid non-essential travel. Food shortages occurred across the region due to the ensuing supply chain crisis in outback Queensland. The flooding caused the ground across S.E Queensland and Northern NSW to become saturated and vul­nerable to even small amounts of rain.

While the amount of rain was less than the huge volumes seen in eastern states earlier in the year, the situation in the southern state of Victoria was made worse by the ground already being sat­ur­ated. Victoria had experienced its wettest Aug since 2010, and Sept rainfall was above average across most of northern Victoria. 

Residents in Echuca, Victoria

building sandbag levees to protect their properties

theguardian

Shepparton, Victoria

NYTimes

Shamrock Hotel, Rochester Vic

Watoday

A low pressure system travelled east over the nation, bringing the rain which hit southern Australia throughout Oct. As torrential rain swelled many of Victoria's major waterways to flood level, tran­­s­port routes were cut, homes were inundated and communit­ies were isolated. Victoria's floods were particularly severe along the Goulburn, Loddon and Campaspe Rivers, and on the Murray River. The third yearly La Niña event in a row was an important driver of rain in spring and summer. But the Indian Ocean electric dipole was really the main cause of the recent inland crisis.

La Trobe, Tasmania

weatherzone

South of the mainland in Northern Tasmania, some of the most signif­icant flooding that they’ve had for years have subsided. But the wea­th­er system that pushed through in October has again lifted some of the northern river levels. And many of the catchments that were affected weeks ago have already received warnings that more rain was coming. Tas­manian residents in regions hit by recent floods are now preparing again as storm fronts move over the island state. Moderate flood warnings are in place to northern towns near Launceston, places already flooded.

Flooded areas across Australia, 2022

phys.org

3rd luxury train in Australia - the Great Southern Rail

My goal years ago was to travel on every long, luxury rail trip in the world. And to write each experience up in this blog, achieved so far for Australia, Canada, USA, Japan, Southern China, Singapore, India, Spain, France and Britain.

Since then, I read and loved the book Night Trains: the Rise and Fall of the Sleeper by Andrew Martin, 2017. Now is a great time to review the 2 historical luxury train services in Australia and to introduce our newest luxury train.

1] Australia's most famous train, The Ghan, started in 1929. Or­iginally known as the Afghan Express after the C19th Muslim camel­eers who helped pioneer Austr­al­ia's red interior, it first moved north from Adelaide on its inaugural jour­n­ey to Alice Springs. The track extended to Darwin in 2004, stopping in Katherine and Alice Springs.

The modern journey takes 3 days/2 nights northbound and 4 days/3 nights southbound, including a stay in Coober Pedy. The fares range from $1,049 pp to platinum from $2749 pp.

Australia's 3 luxury train trips

2] The first Indian Pacific, one of the world's few transcontinental rail adventures, first set off from Sydney to Perth in 1970. Thous­ands of well-wishers were gathered a few days later to welcome the Indian Pacific's safe arrival in the capital of Western Aust­ralia. It was the first time one train had been able to complete the 4,352 ks journey from ocean to mighty ocean, using a common rail gauge.

The long trip stopped at Broken Hill, Adelaide, the South Austral­ian wine regions, Nullarbor Plain and Kalgoorlie. But the off-train excursions differ, depending on whether the visitors are travelling eastward or westward. The gold single starts at $1789 pp while the Platinum starts at $3799 pp.

Both the Indian Pacific and The Ghan include great food and wine. While travelling on board, visitors can focus on local foods and wines from the regions the train passes through.

**

Thank you to Steve Meacham for the history and photos. Since 2004, when the previously unprofitable Ghan line was expanded north to Darwin, it and the Indian Pacific have been in the fore­front of a renewed global interest in luxury rail travel. The slow train connected to the human psyche; being on the train was wond­er­ful, and so were the off-the-train activities. The two long Aust­ralian train journeys were very popular and there was a nine-month waiting list for the Ghan and Indian Pacific! Other luxury oper­at­ors in Canada, Europe, South Africa and Chile reported similar suc­c­ess rat­es. People loved the romance of luxury train trips, transformed into high-value, more experiential adventure.

3] More than a year of negotiations with the Nation­al Rail Freight Corporation went into planning Australia’s newest route. Now Aust­ralia has got its third epic, luxury, multi-day rail adventure - the Great Southern Rail. Dec 2019 was the start, but Australia was diverted within a couple of months by coronavirus. Great Southern Rail will again be one of the world's great new generation of railway journeys, from Adelaide to Brisbane and return, with multiple experiential stops in between.

Each trip takes 218 guests. Both gold and platinum accomm­od­at­ion is provided in single or twin cabins, with on-board dining, beverages and off-train excursions.

A 3-day/2-night adventure from Adelaide to Brisbane has stops en route. The trip leaves Adelaide in time for lunch on board. Most meals on the Great Southern's rail adventures are eaten in the train’s dining cars: watching the scenery go by is part of the rail exper­ience. At Victoria's Grampians, the train stops so pass­eng­ers can explore a lovely part of Australia. Walk to MacKenzie Falls after lunch, where the steep trail shows water cascades over huge cliffs into a deep pool. Or perhaps an hour or two at Brambuk, one of Austr­al­ia's greatest Indigenous interp­ret­ative centres.

The Grampians

Passengers are welcomed back on the train with cocktails. Appropr­iately the livery of the diesel engine pulling the Great Southern train is burnt orange, matching the Australian bush and hot beaches

The Brisbane-Adelaide return is a 4-day/3-night trip, with a Hunter Valley stopover. After departing Brisbane, enjoy lunch on board and a rel­axing aft­ernoon settling in a private cabin before arriving at the coastal town of Coffs Harbour. Visitors can choose to meander through the historic vineyards of the Hunter Valley, sampling wines from bout­ique cellar doors and enjoying a sumptuous lunch.

Or visit Newcastle, a city with amazing coastal views and a historical Fort Scratchley site visit. Finish the day with a visit to Strzelecki Lookout and stroll along the Newcastle Memorial Walk.

Or explore the beautiful Port Stephens area. Travel to Nelson Bay for a relaxing cruise spotting dolphins and taking in the beauty of the Bay before a fresh seafood lunch at the Marina while the waves lap at the shore nearby. Next stop is exploring the Stockton Bight Sand Dunes in 4WD vans. Then return to the train for dinner.

Cocktail lounge

The cabin during the day

The cabin at night

The dining room

Great Southern train from Adelaide to Brisbane: Australia's new luxury train unveiled noted that Sydney and Melbourne were not included in the trip. Next day after bunch on board, visit the Moorabool Valley and wan­der along the Geelong water­front, discover public art on the fore­shore and enjoy the Pier, Eastern Beach and Baywalk Bollards. Then set off on a road trip by coach through regional Victoria to the Great Ocean Road to see unforgettable highlights such as the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge or the majestic London Bridge. Finally journey through the charming Adelaide Hills and enjoy the last breakfast on board before arriving into Adelaide.

Post coronavirus, fares will restart from $1649 per person for Gold service and $3899 per person for Platinum service.

the amazing Anna Pavlova in Australia - 1926 and 1929

The Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881–1931) was initially believed to be too tall and not athletic enough to succeed at ballet, yet still graduated from the Imperial Theatre School in St Petersburg in 1899. In 1906 she was promoted to prima ballerina. Although she performed in the opening season of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes in Paris in 1909, she did not join the avant-garde outfit. Instead, in 1911, she form her own company which toured until her death in 1931. This star had my three most important qualities, being Russian, a great artist and an independent, strong woman.

Pavlova and her own company of dancers made two tours to  Australia in 1926 and 1929 when they toured for the famous JC Williamson organisation. During her first tour in 1926 Pavlova and her 45 dan­cers visited Melbourne where His Majesty’s Theatre was the venue for the first season. Pavlova and her own company of dancers made two tours to  Australia in 1926 and 1929 when they toured for the famous JC Williamson organisation.

During her first tour in 1926 Pavlova and her 45 dan­cers visited Melbourne where His Majesty’s Theatre was the venue for the first season. Her partners were Laurent Novikoff and Algeranoff. The debut performance attracted a packed audience of thousands. The Fairy Doll was to be performed first. Algeranoff recalled that while climbing the steps to take up her position as the Fairy Doll, Pavlova said to him, “Perhaps they like, perhaps not, who can tell?” And he recalled that friends of his in the audience told him that people were bewildered because, at first, she merely stood still: but from the time she started dancing, the success was amazing. The Melbourne Argus (15th March 1926) noted in its massive, enthusiastic two column review that Australians had never seen such art.

Anna Pavlova

by Harold Cazneaux,  March 1926

gelatin silver photograph, 20.4 x 15.5 cm

National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

The final night in Melbourne surprised the company with an Australian custom, the throwing of paper streamers, which flowed from every part of the theatre. The success of the Melbourne season had been beyond all expectations. Australasia Films had planned to make a movie of the company while they were in Melbourne, and a number of short films were made in the grounds of Sir George Tallis’ home in Toorak. The stills were printed in newspapers and magazines.

Anna Pavlova at Central Railway Station Sydney, April 1926. 

From left: Laurent Novikoff, Victor Dandré, Lucien Wurmser (musical director), J.C. Williamson rep

National Library of Australia

So famous was she that ten thousand people welcomed her on arrival by train at Sydney's main railway station. [No-one other than King George V himself received such large and welcoming crowds]. Later they presented about 15 ballets and 39 divertissements (short pieces like The Dragonfly and The Swan, for which she was particularly renowned). She presented 15 ballets where a teenage Robert Helpmann (1909–86) was one of the extra Australian dancers, hired for the event. Finally she continued on this section of the company’s world tour in Brisbane, Adelaide and New Zealand, again to rapt acclaim.

For her second Australian tour in 1929, Pavlova travelled thousands of ks in Queensland, on a special train that was proudly provided by the Queensland state government. They visited the rural cities of Rockhampton, Mackay and Bundaberg prior to her Brisbane opening in the newly completed His Majesty’s Theatre. This was followed by more star appearances in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Who did the photography? Harold Cazneaux (1878–1953) came to Australia from his native New Zealand when he was 11. The family settled in Adelaide, where Harold began working as a photo retoucher in 1897. In 1904, he moved to Sydney; five years later he held his first solo photographic exhibition, which happened to be the first solo photographic exhibition in Australia. He was the leading photographer for the Home Magazine from the early 1920s onward, and his photographs of Sydney over a number of decades have become key images of aspects of Australian history.

Apart from Anna Pavlova, his portraits of other famous artists (eg Hans & Nora Heysen, Lionel and Norman Lindsay, Nellie Melba, Yehudi Menuhin, Margaret Preston) also became famous. National Library of Australia has c200 Cazneaux photos; National Gallery of Australia has c400.

Women's domestic labour, in Edwardian art

Frances Vida Lahey (1882-1968) studied painting at the Brisbane Technical College. In her early 20s (1905–09), she travelled south to Melbourne and studied at the National Gallery School with Bernard Hall. It was conventional training for a young Australian artist in the Edwardian era. And like everyone else, Vida Lahey travelled to Europe in 1915 where she spent four years, studying art in Paris at the Académie Colarossi and doing her bit during WW1. But her stay in Paris came after the painting I want to discuss.

Lahey, Monday Morning, 1912, 

153 x 123cm, 

Queensland Art Gallery

The Queensland Art Gallery says that the painting Monday Morning 1912 launched Vida Lahey's career when it was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Queensland Art Society in Brisbane, in 1912. Monday Morning was apparently following the tradition established at the National Gallery of Victoria School in Melbourne, where students were encouraged to produce a large narrative painting to compete for the triennial travelling art scholarship.

Esme, Vida’s younger sister, was the model for the woman at the wash tub. She worked alongside Flora Campbell, a family friend, doing the washing at the Lahey family home in Indooroopilly in Brisbane. The painting depicted the women doing the weekly wash with copper tubs and bar soap ― once a common sight in Australian households. But if it was such a common sight, why was it a rare subject in Australian art? Why were women's lives generally depicted in art in a more genteel fashion and how was it that their hard labour in and around the house disappeared from public discussion?

My assumption is that male artists were at work during the day and never saw laundry being done. As far as they were concerned, the laundry washed and dried itself, ironed itself and miraculously entered itself into the linen cupboard. Was it hard labour? Any viewer of this painting could see the relentless steam and the heavy, wet loads, but only Queenslanders would have recognised the unbearable sub-tropical heat and humidity.

World War One changed everything for Vida Lahey (and everyone else). Though there is a suggestion that in England she was romantically involved with a friend of one of her brothers who was subsequently killed in action, there is no evidence to suggest that Vida ever considered marriage. Back in Australia, Lahey maintained her strong commitment to painting as a professional career.

This painting was a fine work by the artist and remains her only surviving large-scale work. What can we compare it to?  Not C17th Dutch interiors where that the women were well dressed, elegant and totally removed from the day to day grime of running a household. Dutch servants helped the mistress of the house but were not labouring in the paintings. 17th century Dutch paintings idealised the domestic sphere and saw it as a place for teaching the values of the Dutch Protestant Church - cleanliness, order, how to handle staff, how to model good behaviour for children, female virtue.  How different Lahey's Monday Morning was; less sentimental and more gritty.

Southern, The Old Bee Farm, 1900
69 × 112 cms
NGV

Southern, The Country Washhouse, c1905,
39 x 60 cm
private collection

If I had to compare Lahey's theme with that of other Australian artists, I would select Clara Southern (1860-1940). Southern's small works, The Old Bee Farm 1900 and The Country Washhouse c1905 depicted women at work in the bush landscape, not inside in a laundry shed. Southern specifically painted in a range of colours that hel­ped the models blend in, almost as a natural part of their rural landscape. Was it heavy work? Were the women lonely?

When South­ern first moved to War­r­an­d­yte, the country washhouse was a common sight, with the hot water boiled over an open fire & copper tubs full of clothes. It might not have been an epic national task, like shearing sheep, but it was a quiet and laborious task. And like her colleague & close friend Frederick McCubbin, Southern painted women at work inside the home eg The Kitchen 1912. By the time this tiny painting was painted, Southern was living in her beloved Warrandyte, on the rural fringes of pre-WW1 Melbourne.

Rutherston, The Laundry Girls, 1906

Oil, 92 x 117cm 

Tate

British artist Albert Rutherston’s early scenes of domestic life used sharply contrasting outlines to de­scribe the positions the young women worked in and the draped fabrics they dealt with. In Laundry Girls 1906, the Tate said the two women in this paint­ing were shown marking laundry with thread, before it was sent out to be clean­ed.  The laundry of a middle class Edwardian household would either have been done at home by young working-class domestic servants. Or it could be sorted by the servants and sent out to a local washerwoman. It showed none of Clara Southern's women working outside in the bush landscape, but at least the women in this painting laboured in company.

Orpen, The Wash House, 1905

Oil, 91 x 73 cm, 

National Gallery Ireland.

Irishman William Orpen met Lottie Stafford, the model for the main figure in this 1904 painting while she was working as a washerwoman in slum cottages in Chelsea. Lottie, the working class model, might have shown confidence and naturalness but I bet she was bored witless with the tasks. This painting, The Wash House, 1905 drew universal acclaim when exhibited in London in 1906 to middle class audiences.

I recommend you examine a painting by the Belgian artist Georges van Zevenberghen called La repasseuse, 1907. The ironing work was long and repetitive, but the view through the window to the cityscape outside was a delight. I will ask Art Contrarian which gallery has the painting now.

Australia's Flying Kangaroo: a history of Qantas

Three men believed that aviation could benefit the outback commun­ities of rural Queensland. They were Hudson Fysh (1895-1974), Paul McGinness (1896-1952) and Fergus McMaster (1879-1950). Based on their air force experience in WW1, McGinness and Fysh surveyed an air route across northern Australia in 1919 using a Model T Ford. A fourth man, Arthur Baird (1889-1954) later established the company’s reputation for engineering excellence.

Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services/Qantas was formed in Nov 1920, centred in Winton, Queensland. The very next year they moved the company’s headquarters to Longreach in Queen­sland. And in 1922 the first scheduled Qantas mail and passeng­er flight flew from Charleville to Cloncurry, Queensland.

Qantas didn’t build its own aircraft until 1926, once again based in Longreach.

In 1928, a Qantas DH50 aircraft was leased to John Flynn and the Australian Inland Mission; it was the first flying ambulance for the Australian Aerial Medical Service. And right in the depths of the Depression (1930), Qantas established its headquarters in Brisbane. From there, Qantas carried airmail to Darwin, as part of an exper­imental mail service to the UK.

The flying kangaroo helped revolutionise long-haul travel

Jim Eames' book The Flying Kangaroo: Great Untold Stories of Qantas (Allen and Unwin, 2015) reminded us why Qantas remained such an im­portant part of Australiana. But I wanted far less on the tech­nical issues and near accidents, and far more on nationalism, ad­vertising, colours and symbols. For example the Australian car­rier adopted the flying kang­aroo only in 1944. The symbol was itself adapted from the Australian one penny coin, back in those pre-decimal days.

Qantas supported the war effort from 1939 on, evacuating personnel who risked being captured by advancing Japanese forces and dropping supplies to troops in New Guinea. The airline pioneered history-making flights of 30+ hours in Catalina aircraft between Perth and Ceylon, maintaining a crucial link with the Allied Forces. Endless pilots and engineers led a very large workforce, maintaining and flying DC3s, Catalinas and single-engine bush aeroplanes.

Post-war aircraft appraisals in the airline’s most formative years saw Qantas leading in fleet decision-making. Eames recounted the way Qantas steered itself through or around political pressures to maintain loyalty to the UK. The book shared new insights into the ever-shifting ground surrounding Qantas’ ownership, mergers, management inter­actions and its ultimate privatisation.

What were the crises? In Aug 1960 a Constellation crashed and burned when an engine failed on takeoff at Mauritius (with no fatalities). The handling of this accident was later hailed as a model of safety management and a credit to Qantas’ crew training. Nonetheless Jim Eames gave a painful and honest version of how all on board escaped alive. 

In 1966 a Boeing 707, en route from Sydney to Brisbane then Honolulu, violently started to porpoise up and down. So concerned were the pilots that they ordered an oceanic return path lest the problem return and cause them to crash over inhabited land. The cause was a fault in the horizontal stabilisers in its tail.

In Feb 1969, there was a temporary loss of control in a Boeing 707 high over the Persian Gulf (with no fatalities). It suddenly dis­played incon­sistent flight information in the cockpit and was put into a 5 km spiral dive so stressful that the airframe nearly ruptured. The post incident analysis offered major lessons that improved the safety of the newly booming industry across the world. In 2010 near Singapore the most fam­ous of all of Qantas’ heroic saves was QF32, when an Airbus A380 was very damaged by an uncontained engine failure.

Jim Eames' book, 2015

The air traffic controllers were also learning quickly, including a near-collision over Thailand in Sep 1990. A giant US Air Force C5A Galaxy air transport JUST missed a Qantas B747, in civilian air­space. The US military seemed to have suppressed the evidence.

Eames highlighted the leadership role that Qantas developed through its history, partially because its route distances were among the world’s longest and most demanding. The distance fact­or went right back to the 1920s when Qantas had to build its own biplanes in Long­reach to keep its fleet well-maintained with distant spare parts.

The book also documented the tyranny of seniority in the flying ranks; the entire hierarchy of humiliation that applied to law, pub­lic administration, the ABC and the strong manufacturers and ship­ping lines of post-war Australia.

The Flying Kangaroo also revealed much of the score settling that characterised the merging of Australian Airlines/TAA and Qantas in mid-1995. The book discussed the polit­ically complex factors of Bob Hawkes personal friendship with Sir Peter Abeles at Ansett and the abandonment of the late 80s infat­uation in Canberra with a three way merger of Qantas, Australian and Air New Zealand. One wonders what might have otherwise happened? 

**

The publishers noted the brilliant risk takers who made Qantas the safest airline in the world, the special demands of flying VIPs, the hazards of overseas postings, and the ever present dangers of the skies. But above all, these were the stories of how a uniquely Australian style shaped the best airline in the English-speaking world.  November 2020 should be a time of great celebration at Qantas!

Stanhope Forbes: from Newlyn, Cornwall to Geelong Aus

I have lectured on Edwardian art history in the past and knew the artists very well. Before the start of this new academic year, I went to have a look at the Edwardians again and focused on my old paintings. Two weeks later, out of the blue, the Weekend Australian promoted Stanhope Forbes’ The Pier Head (1910), now on display at the Geelong Gallery in Victoria. Small world!

Who was Dublin-born Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857–1947) and why did his painting end up in a regional gallery in Australia? The family moved to London where young Stanhope studied at the Dulwich College and then Lambeth School of Art. Finally he became a student at the Royal Academy School in 1876 where his mentors were Leighton and Alma-Tadema. Forbes was one, very fortunate lad!

After spending a few years in France, Forbes returned to London and showed works he made in Brittany at the 1883 Royal Academy and Royal Hibernian Academy shows. My interest in Forbes was piqued in 1884 when he moved to Cornwall, part of the growing colony of artists in beaut­iful, sunny Newlyn, a fishing village. But I must admit that at least one influence from France remained – Cornwall had the same quality of light he had enjoyed so much in France.

Timing was also important. Newlyn’s Old Harbour was extended between 1884-94 with the construction of two piers enclosing forty acres of water. South Pier was created in 1887 and North Pier one year later. The local council believed the harbour was, from then on, one of the safest harbours built in SW Britain, one which could be accessed at any tide.

Stanhope Forbes,
Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach, 1885
119  x  154 cm
Plymouth City Council: Museum and Art Gallery

His painting A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach 1885 showed an auction of fish landed from rowing boats on the beach near Newlyn; the viewer can see the sales being handled by an auctioneer. The painting depict­ed fishing people in traditional working outfits - the men in rough jumpers, oilskin trousers, and heavy leather boots. The women wear heavy aprons and woollen shawls, capable of doing a proper day’s work. The workers looked rugged and wind burned, not at all romant­ic­ised. If there was any sense of the romantic, it was the Newlyn fleet of fishing boats which could be seen in the back­ground, anchored in the harbour.

Fish Sale was soon exhibited to popular and critical acclaim at the Royal Academy summer exhibition. The success of the painting encouraged other artists to join Forbes in Newlyn, leading to the establishment of the Newlyn School of Art which Forbes and his wife founded in 1899.

The Weekend Australian noted that because Forbes generally painted en plein air, and because Newlyn had better weather than the rest of Britain, the new art school started attracting students who were already committed to painting en plein air. Cornwall’s longer hours of sunlight were wonderful for late afternoon paintings and noone else captured the setting sun as well as Stanhope Forbes.

Stanhope Forbes, 1907
Gala Day at Newlyn
Hartlepool Museums

Stanhope Forbes, 1910

The Pier Head
124 x 150 cm
Geelong Gallery

There was abundant subject matter along the harbour and in the village - people, the fishing industry, coastal geography, pubs and piers. But risks too. In the years before WW1, he had set up his easel on the Newlyn pier when a strong wind blew his painting into the sea. A local fisherman rescued it. The canvas, The Pier Head 1910, was eventually finished and was purchased soon after in London by the connoisseur and patron Mrs OF Armytage. She bought it on behalf of Victoria’s Geelong Gallery, making it one of the earliest works acquired by the gallery.

Christie’s noted two factors that suggest Forbes was insisting on the old world character of his corner of England. Firstly like many Edwardian painters, Forbes found the colours of evening gentle. This was not new. Close of day themes had been loved in late 19th century European art. Secondly motor transportation and farm machinery were being gradually introduced in the Edwardian decade, but Forbes resolutely turned his back on these emblems of modernity. As ever, Forbes was living and working amongst ordinary people, depicting them as honest, old fashioned and free from big-city pretensions.

The book Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School was written by Caroline Fox (David & Charles Pub) in 1997. I loked this book because it focused on the Newlyn School's founder and mentor, Stanhope Forbes. But it also went into some detail about my other favourite Newlyn artists, Dame Laura Knight, Alfred Munnings and Walter Langley.

Walter Langley
Between The Tides, 1901
40cm x 60cm
Warrington Museum & Art Gallery

Who influenced whom at Newlyn? Birmingham man Walter Langley (1852-1922) became a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1881 and made money via local patronage. I am not sure why he decided on Newlyn but clearly he was one of the first artists to paint the fishing community there, a couple of years before Stanhope Forbes and many years before Harold and Laura Knight arrived. Langley said about himself that he was “the first figure painter to depict incidents in the life of the fisherfolk”.

Perhaps Langley is less famous now because so many of his works in the early years (1880s and 1890s) were large, painted in watercolours, and focused on hard labour and difficult lives. Between The Tides 1901, on the other hand, was later, smaller, painted in oils, and showed happier lives.

Harold Harvey (1874–1941) was a Cornish lad who went to study art at the Academie Julian in Paris. When he married, he and his wife moved to Newlyn and both joined the Newlyn School of Art. A friend of Laura Knight and Harold Knight, Stanhope Forbes and Ernest Procter, Harvey specialised in painting Cornish fishermen, farmers and miners.

Harold Harvey

The Blacksmith's Shop, 1906

31 x 41 cm

Lords Wood, Marlow Bucks

Of all the paintings Harvey painted in and near Newlyn, examine The Blacksmith's Shop by the Old Bridge, 1906. Note the industry of the young workers and the interest of the passers by, the strong sunlight and the stone bridge. But also note that Stanhope Forbes had painted the same bridge and forge just a few years earlier.

Brisbane 1919 - racist red flag riots

This history comes from: The red flag riots: a study of intolerance by Raymond Evans, Riot Acts: The History of Australian Rioting by David Lowe, the SBS television programme Remembering Brisbane's anti-Russian Red Flag Riot and from my own Russian-Australian family. For a more personal history, see the work done by Marett Leiboff:  “The main thing is to shut them out: The Deployment of Law and the Arrival of Russians in Australia 1913-1925". Your Brisbane Past and Present provides good information on Brisbane's Russian Orthodox Cathedral and Russian Jewish Synagogue in the post WW1 era.

Brisbane was a gateway into Australia. In the years 1908-14, Australia operated an Immigration Bureau in Brisbane for eastern immigrants who were largely Russian - intellectuals, profess­ionals, workers and political prisoners from Siberia. They were searching for freedom yet they were not warmly welcomed; they were not British-Australian, were not Anglican and were not truly white. Worse still, these new immigrants wanted equality for all the workers.

Even though Brisbane was not a large city, a Russian com­mun­ity of 3,500 formed there with Merivale St as its centre, in the vicinity of their synagogue. In 1913 a Russian Club was established in South Brisbane, for coffee, discussion and reading Russian newspapers from abroad. A Russian language play was produced and staged in Brisbane. A local Russian newspaper began regular publication.

When WW1 broke out, Russian-born Australians quickly enlisted. [Read the book Russian Anzacs in Australian History by Elena Govor]. Then came the extraordinary news of the 1917 Revolution, greatly exciting workers across the country. A ship was soon chart­ered and 500 Russian im­migrants from across Australia returned to the country of their birth. Meanwhile all non-British immigration into Australia stopped.

When Leon Trotsky signed an early truce with Germany to end WW1 in Dec 1917, the Brisbane Russians became enemy aliens. People who hated the idea of non-British immigrants attacked the new commun­ity in newspapers and suggested that all Russian-born Australians be interned. The Governor-General of Australia contacted the Secretary of the State for the Colonies in London to ascertain that Britain's recent deportation of 100 "Russian Jew Bolshevist Propagandists" could serve as a precedent for Australian deportations to proceed. The Daily Mail called for the same deportation of socialist leaders from Brisbane, and 8 of these men were promptly deported by the Federal government.

Raymond Evan's book, The Red Flag Riots,

University of Queensland Press, 1988

Meanwhile the working people of Brisbane became divided over the symbolism of the red flag. While many workers’ organisations proudly flew it, others bitterly opposed what the flag represented. The conservative press grew more virulently anti-socialist.

Since May 1918 sections of the Commonwealth government’s Military Intelligence, the Special Intelligence Bureau and the Commonwealth Police were promoting anti-revolutionary initiatives by encouraging right-wing vigilante activism. Brit­ish loyalists merged with the rightist Returned Soldiers' Organisations. The Queensland Commissioner of Police, Frederick Urquhart, organised an anti-socialist, paramilitary vigilante force to defend loyalty to Britain and to ensure White Australia. Common­wealth surveillance identified the activist Alexander Zuzenko and Peter Simonoff, the new Soviet Consul in Queensland as particularly problematic.

Consul Simonoff was interned. In protest, a peaceful march wound its way through Brisbane’s streets, led by Russian-Australians. After the march, lists of dang­erous Russians who had taken part were compiled. Military raids seized revolutionary mater­ial. The Russian Hall was wrecked; the Russian community faced evictions from their rented homes and job dismissals; their newspaper was closed; their leaders in prison, with some facing deportation. The synagogue was threatened. What shocks me is that most of the rest of the local labour movement did not rush to their aid.

New Russian club premises were established in Merivale St.

But it was now illegal to march under the red flag. In March 1919 a 400 workers met outside Brisbane Trades Hall. Police looked on. Surveillance agents mingled with the crowd. Suddenly Alexander Zuzenko and his followers opened three large red banners for the crowd. The march began and increased in size as the marchers app­roached the Domain. Police on horses attempted to move against the workers, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. The Russian-born workers seemed safe.

That night, several thousand ex-servicemen violently attacked a union meeting at North Quay. Russians and workers were seized, mauled and stabbed. Then 2,000 men crossed Victoria Bridge to attack the Russian headquarters. Police stood by and watched.

Early next day military police ransacked the treasured workers’ lib­rary stored at Merivale St and Russian homes were ruined. That night, fuelled by alcohol, anti-Russian editorials and an inflammatory meeting at North Quay, 7,000 British-Australian ex-servicemen and loyalists marched on the Russian Club chanting ‘Burn their meeting place down!’ and ‘Hang them!’ Commissioner Urquhart was wounded.

After the Brisbane Courier defended the actions of the pro-British mob, further violent riots went for three days. The riots were followed by months of intimidation and individual assaults upon people who were, or might have been Russian-born. For the terrified Russian community, the Brisbane pogroms had started.

The Brisbane Courier Mail

25th March 1919

The police force was not mustered to protect Russians, so this was confused reporting.

Instead of punishing the rioters, commonwealth and state authorities turned against the victims i.e the Russians and the workers who had been the target of public attack. They gaoled 15 workers for flying banned red flags. The state govern­ment offered its police forces and gaols to the Commonwealth, helping in the deportation without trial of 11 Russians. Lists were compiled for the expulsion of 60 more, but this was thwarted by British Authorities. For 2+ months after the riots, enormous rallies loyal to British Australia decried anything foreign or radical in their midst.

**

In what context can we possibly understand these racist riots in Brisbane? By early 1919 local fears of the Bolshevik Revolution became mixed up in conservative minds with hatred of non-British immigration. Feeding these fears was the local conservative press, describing revolut­ionary Russians as Bolshevik swine, guilty of repulsive bestial­ity, lawlessness and lust. And leaders of the Catholic and Protestant churches were preach­­ing against the alarming spread of ungodly, atheistic communism.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the civil liberties march of workers, including Russian-born Australians, from Trades Hall on the 23rd March 1919. The march was planned to protest the continuation of the draconian War Precautions Act in peacetime and internment of the Russian Consul Simonoff. But what chance did these young migrants have? The vast crowd was literally screaming for lynchings.

Both newspapers, the Brisbane Courier and the Daily Standard, reported the following day that something quite exceptional had happened. The Daily Standard viewed the rioting as one of the maddest and most disgraceful scenes ever witnessed in any part of Australia. But The Brisbane Courier saw only wild and thrilling magnificence in the riots. Nothing approaching it, the editor gushed, had ever been witnessed in Brisbane before.

Boer War - anti German sentiment in Australia

Your Brisbane tells a sorry tale. Karl Ernst Eschenhagen (born 1850) was a baker who emigrated from Germany in the 1880s and established one of Brisbane's best hospitality businesses. He started in a George St bakery, opened branches in Edward St and Fortitude Valley and lastly opened a Queen St restaurant that could seat 500 diners.

Ernst Eschenhagen had become a famous baker, restaurateur and caterer. His surname was surmounted on the turret, was painted on both windows and was sunk in brass letters into the footpath. Anyone passing could not help but be impressed. Even the inscription "By Special Appointment to His Excellency" above the door was not a commercial boast but a statement of Vice-Regal fact; his restaurant had catered scores of Government House receptions.

Things turned nasty for Eschenhagen at the turn of the century. As a result of Australia's involvement in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) in South Africa, anti-German sent­iment ran rampant, leading to a boycott of the Esch­enhagen business. Before this war started, there was no more popular and prosperous caterer to be found in Brisbane. After the Boer War, his shop was a desert. The business did slowly recover, but Ernst Esch­enhagen took his own life in 1906.

Who knows what part was played by the hatred endured during the war years. During the Second Boer War, there were certainly attacks on Germans in the press, in shops and on public transport in Great Britain, but clearly it happened in Australia as well.

Major FWR Albrecht 
ex Prussian Guard Artillery of Berlin 
leading the artillery unit of the Boer republic of the Orange Free State 
photo credit: Blankwaffen Forum

The 2nd Boer War was a major and very bloody conflict to which Britain and her colonies send 450,000 troops. The 16,500 Australian troops made up over half of the number of troops from participating British colonies. I know quite a lot about the connection between the British, the Australians and the Boers, but nothing about the relationship between the South African Boers and Germany.

By 1884 there were German Imperial colonies in Africa, for example in present day Ghana, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Namibia and Botswana. Perhaps that partially explains why, during the second Boer war, there was great German support for the Boer struggle. As The Soldier’s Burden has shown, the Boers were armed with weapons made by Mauser and Krupp. Major FWR Albrecht, the officer commanding the Orange Free State artillery, was a German army man. And note that the German Freikorps of Volunteers and officers fought on the Boer side.

There was no official monetary aid from the German govern­ment. However Boer emissaries toured Germany during the war, collecting funds for Boer soldiers and later for their widows and orphans. Pro-Boer associations met in bars and meeting halls like The Burenwirt, München. I am assuming they were raising money, as well as raising beer steins. Countless postcards were printed in Germany during the war, both to raise funds for the Boers and to make fun of the British. Many books were published during and after the war; Pro-Boer associat­ions, German volunteer combatants and novelist wanted to publish their version of history in the German language.

Boers armed with German made 1896 Mauser rifles posing behind a small mortar
photo credit: The Warfare Historian

In the latter stages of the war, the Kaiser's support waned as he recognised that alienating the British by supporting a small nation on the tip of Africa was potentially more trouble than it was worth. Nonetheless once the war ended, Boers still chose to flee to German South West Africa to avoid surrendering to the British. 

Even if we agree that German support (financial, equipment and volunteers) was vital to the Boer effort, we still have to ask vital questions:

1. How did Australian citizens, going about their daily business in Melbourne or Brisbane, know about semi-secretive German activities on behalf of the Boers? Aus­t­ralian newspaper journalists in South Africa did send back articles that mentioned German soldiers but was that enough to incite anti-German behaviour 10,000 ks away?

2. There was no shortage of Boer supporters in France, Netherlands and Belgium, so why did Australian citizens not seem to develop an antipathy towards these nations and their vast overseas colonies? The nationalistic Transvaal Irish Brigade marched into South Africa to support the Boers and to oppose the British. How did Australians react to Irish immigrants in Australia?

3. Did Australian citizens target all people with German surnames, regardless of how many decades they had been in Australia and whether they were Australian citizens or not? How widespread were the anti-German feelings spread around Australia, particularly in the large communities of German-speakers near Adelaide?

**

I still wonder about the surviving Boer fighters and their ongoing relationship with Germany. Note that at the outbreak of WW1, only a decade after the Boer War ended, the Germans equipped the Burenfreikorps and supported Manie Maritz when he went into open rebellion to topple South Africa's Union Government. Even in the 1920s and 1930s there was still a strong Boer force waiting for the moment that South Africa would shake off British influence. Certain sections of Boer society were involved in Right wing organisations that were loosely copied from the Freikorps.