James Porter. Darling Downs Gazette. 29 Aug 1912 p5 Passing of a pioneer.

My great grand-uncle James Porter arrived in the frontier settlement of colonial Brisbane in Queensland in 1849. He emigrated with his parents and siblings, including my four-year-old great-grandfather, Robert. James was fourteen on arrival, young enough to be amazed by the difference between colonial Australia and his birthplace of Scotland but old enough to remember his early perspectives. He wrote sixty-two years later in 1911, that his memory was better for events that occurred in his younger days than in the recent past.[1]

James identifies that in the late 1840s, when Queensland was moving from a penal settlement to an open colony, Brisbane was chiefly comprised of men connected with the penal times, either officially or otherwise. These included the Petrie family, and James was, as he stated himself, an ‘inmate’ of the Petrie house.[2] James’ father, another James and his younger brother, Sandy, worked for the Petries.[3] Part of the younger James’ reminiscences was that Mr (Andrew) Petrie had to get a permit to ‘entertain the strangers’, which permitted Petrie to sell liquor as there were no hotels in early Brisbane.

James identifies that his interest in early Queensland was due to him hearing of the early European settlers’ struggles from ‘these men’s own lips’.[4] James uses the words of the penal station being ‘thrown open’, which gives the impression of an unorganised process, whether intentional or not.[5] James also gives the names of early businessmen who arrived from Sydney, including W Richardson, W Davidson and Le Strange. I am unaware of the impact of such men in Brisbane, but I know that the W. Davidson of Kangaroo Point is not one of my other great-grandfathers, William Davidson, who arrived later in 1854 as a Scottish gardener. This later Davidson made a small impact in gardening in Brisbane and the Darling Downs but was not the squatter William Davidson of Kangaroo Point referred to by James. Alas.

Andrew Petrie’s house, Brisbane. Thanks to State Library of Queensland for this image.

The early residents of the settlement, including the first official hoteliers and the butchers, were named by James, as were the newspaper proprietors. James remembers when A[u}rthur Sydney Llyons sold his newspaper to James Swan. Unlike many other publishers, Swan subsequently made his fortune from the Brisbane Courier.[6] Swan commenced the Courier in 1864 from its predecessor, the Moreton Bay Courier.[7]

Another subject discussed by James was religion, and James mentions the various churches in early Brisbane, starting with the Catholics who worshipped in an old government barn located on Elizabeth Street with services led by Father Handley. The settlement’s Roman Catholic residents planned for a permanent church and, in 1850, commenced building what later became St Stephen’s Cathedral. A year later, the Anglicans erected the foundations for St John’s pro-Cathedral, but labour shortages plagued this project due to labourers leaving for the gold diggings in Victoria and New South Wales. These departing labourers also included James, his father and his brother. Only in 1854 was labour organised to complete building the walls of St. Johns. James assisted Mr Marshall in completing the carpentry on St. Johns after he returned to Queensland. James identified that in 1911, Mr Marshall’s son was the Brisbane Town Clerk.[8]

St. John’s pro Cathedral, Brisbane. Thanks to State Library of Queensland for this image.

The Porter family were Scottish Presbyterians, and James remembered that the Presbyterians didn’t erect a church until after the Anglicans and the Catholics, as the Presbyterians brought the schism present in the Church of Scotland in their old country to their new home. One of these groups, the Free Church Presbyterians, amalgamated with the Baptist and erected a church building that was later sold and became the Telegraph Office on William Street. The clergyman for this group was Rev. Mr. Stewart, who arrived on the Fortitude, one of three emigrant ships organised by the Rev. John Dunmore Lang. These ships arrived in Moreton Bay in 1849 with the free Scottish emigrant families of industrious artisans in Lang’s attempt to fill the new settlement with protestants.[9] James remembered the two Presbyterian bodies existed together nicely for a while before dissension re-emerged.[10]

James’ manuscript ended abruptly after discussing prominent citizens, churches and the Indigenous tribes of the area. However, James shared other reminiscences in some local newspapers around 1911, when he also wrote his manuscript. In the other articles, he discussed he, his father, and Sandy’s trip to the Victorian diggings. James also explored the local area, where he accompanied his good friend, Tom Petrie.[11] James’ memories of the early days of Moreton Bay when it opened as a free settlement, changing from its initial purpose as a place of secondary punishment for convicts, provide us with some idea of what was happening and who was resident in the fledgling town. As a city of now over one million people, Brisbane has come a long way, but James’ stories help us imagine the 1840s and subsequent years.

[1] ‘Early Recollections of an old hand’, OM68-18, James Porter Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of    Queensland, Australia, no pagination.
[2][2] Ibid.
[3] ‘Passing of a Pioneer’, Darling Downs Gazette, Toowoomba, 29 August 1912, p. 5.
[4] Porter, ‘Early Recollections of an old hand’.
[5] Ibid.
[6] ‘the Late Hon. James Swan, M.L.C.’, Illawarra Mercury, Wollongong, p. 2, col. 3.
[7] Wikipedia, The Courier-Mail – Wikipedia, accessed 23 August 2023.
[8] ‘Passing of a Pioneer’, Darling Downs Gazette, Toowoomba, 29 August 1912, p. 5.
[9] Raymond Evans, A History of Queensland, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2007, p. 61.
[10] Porter, ‘Early Recollections of an old hand’
[11]’50 years ago’, Darling Downs Gazette, 13 January 1906, pp. 5-6; ‘Early Days’, Darling Downs Gazette, 29   August 1912, pp. 5-6.