Category Archives: Queensland

Ada Baker – From gentility to domestic service in the colony.

GSQ Blog Posted on by

Adelaide (Ada) Baker, the second eldest of six siblings was born on 22 February 1856 in London to parents Daniel Thompson Baker and Ann Dorling, who lived in a comfortable residence at 390 Oxford Street in Soho, London: about where Oxford Circus is located. The Bakers employed housemaids, one of whom accompanied Ada to school before bringing her home in the afternoon for music lessons with a private tutor. The children lived in sophisticated gentility, they were not asked to … Continue reading

Housing for People of Small Means: Worker’s Dwelling Act 1909

GSQ Blog Posted on by

On 22 December 1909, the Queensland government passed “An Act to Enable the Government to Assist Persons in Receipt of Small Incomes to Provide Homes for Themselves”. Very understandable why the act was generally referred to as the Workers’ Dwelling Act 1909! The aim was to provide  a means for working class families to acquire a low interest mortgage to construct their home. The first home was built in 1910 and by the late 1920s 23,515 homes had been built … Continue reading

An ordinary man.

GSQ Blog Posted on by

I have always been interested in the “forgotten” people on my family tree, those who were single, or married but left no descendants and those who died young including the many unnamed infants. Those who led ordinary lives and left little behind in the way of possessions or stories to be remembered and passed down. One such person was Albert George Loftus, the brother of my two times great-grandmother Alice Loftus. The Loftus family, John and Mary with their four … Continue reading

Elizabeth Readford, lost to history.

GSQ Blog Posted on by

Many Queenslanders will have heard about Henry Readford, commonly known as Harry Redford. He is remembered in legend, in legal precedent, in written histories, in monuments and sculptures. His epic droving trip with stolen cattle from Bowen Downs in central Queensland to South Australia has been marked through modern day Cattle Drives.  In contrast, his wife of 30 years, Elizabeth has disappeared from history, without a photograph being located to remember her. Elizabeth Jane, my great grandaunt, was born in … Continue reading

Relics of Early Explorers

GSQ Blog Posted on by

For many years, I have had two foolscap pages of old yellowing print text. The text is a copy, and it was made using some form of copying process which was available in the early 1900s. Glued to this text are two original illustrations. A number of years ago I discovered the text and illustrations had been published as an article in the The Queenslander in August 1907. The Queenslander was the weekly newspaper of the Brisbane Courier which had … Continue reading