1847
Yesterday was foul. Beyond foul. It was hell. It was so fucking muggy I thought I was dead already. People were sitting at bus-stops in puddles of their own juices, muttering about how there better be a bloody storm soon.
It was warmish when I started out but not too bad. Had to trundle over to Kincumber again so I thought, Bugger the heat, I'll squeeze in a walk while I'm there. Didn't walk Wednesday because it was too bloody muggy.
Anyways, at the corner of Empire Bay Road and Avoca Drive there's a roundabout. There's a wee old sandstone church next to it and the bus turns and goes down Avoca Drive into Kincumber.
I got off at the wee church. I already knew it was 1847. It's on my hist list. It was beautiful. Brown and grey from the traffic fumes but that can be sandblasted off. St Andrew's in Sydney was done last year and looks like new.
This one, St Paul's, had its own graveyard. Had a look around and there were some lovely old headstones. The oldest one I found was 1810. Wasn't looking very hard due to the bloody flies. I'll dig up the cemetery index here in the library some time. Did notice Rock Davis's grave though. He's the bloke Davistown is named after and I saw something the other day about him being named Rock after the Rock of Gibraltar because he was born near it at sea. Cool.
So I lurked in the graveyard for a bit and took some pictures. (Which have to wait until I'm back online at home.) Wanted to have a gander inside the church but there was some sort of service happening and I wasn't going to crash in. The outside is a lovely stripped-back Gothic so I'm hoping the inside has some nice arches or perhaps a quatrefoil or two.
Kincumber's mostly seventies but there's plenty of 19th & early twentieth century stuff to see. Avoca Drive had a few things on it. Forgot to bring my notes to the library today so let's see what I can remember.
Opposite the church there's the Kincumber Hall of Arts. On Empire Bay Drive. Clapboard painted a dull browny-pink that's one of the paint colours from Federation times I think. Hideous colour. Managed to get a clear photo of the building despite the traffic and I remember it's 1914.
There's another lovely old clapcoard building at Number 154 Avoca Drive with "M Frost Kincumber Cash Store" on it with a post-and-rail fence, another post-and-rail fence at Number 168-170 and a seventies house that looked like it was built on a Federation cottage frame. There was a sign out the front saying the lot is coming down and 11 units were going up. Bugger. But hey, I got photos and the local history crowd probably got some too. The old Post Office and the Postmaster's house are still there on the corner of Davies Road. They're an auto-trimmers or something now but the building itself looks in pretty good nick. You can see the Post Office sign on the Avoca Drive side, poking put above the sign.
Down at the shopping centre you can get through to Kincumber Street. It's the street behind the shops. Go round behind the (current) Post Office. There's a Federation cottage there that houses the Community College and another one beside it that's some other sort of community centre thingy. Opposite them, in the carpark there, there's another tiny church. Carpenter Gothic this time and not in great nick. It's boarded up and has been given a kicking by the local yobs but maybe it's still structurally sound. Behind it there's another cottage which is a third community centre thingy and opposite that there's a scout hall. That's clapboard like the cottages and the church. They're all around 1900 by the look of them. I'm not sure about the scout hall. Could be 1920s. It's on 1940s brick piers (stumps) like the church and the first two cottages but piers can be added later just by jacking the building up. It's not on my hist list so I'll have to dig around for its history.
I'm slowly piecing together a picture of Brisbane Water history. I'm in no hurry. Plenty of the work's been done already by the local history societies and I'm picking out the bits I'm interested in. But of course they're working on what they fancy and that can give patchy coverage sometimes. Sometimes it takes years to dig up some interesting snippet and it can take years for your snippet to come together with someone else's snippet and form a bigger picture. But it all comes together in the end like some giant jigsaw and you see so much more than you ever knew was there.
Remembrance Day - Tascott #4 - Brisbane Water Walk #5
Todays' the 11th of November. Poppy day and (I think) Memorial Day in America. The minute's silence in the library was interrupted by some drongo asking the librarian for something or other and we all turned (silently) round and stared at him until he scuttled off.
It was cool this morning. What bliss. I had to get up around four and turn the fan off. The cool breeze stuck around all during my walk. Wouldn't've got Tascott finished today otherwise.
Went up and down some hills and saw some pleasant views. The sirens going along Brisbane Water Drive down below echo off the ridge and the water and are pretty loud even half way up the ridge. My leg is covered in cat hair where two rather plump cats barred my way on Sandstone Crescent. They rubbed themselves against me and I scratched them in the places cats can never get to.
Got back to to train station at ten. I was hot but it was nothing like yesterday. And that's Tascott (Brisbane Water #5) finished. Not sure where I'm walking next. I'll pour over my maps on the weekend and make up my mind where Brisbane water #6 will be.
No comments:
Post a Comment