Gondolas on Ross Creek

One of the most spectacular fundraising events Townsville had ever seen occurred in 1929, when a “Venetian Carnival” was held in aid of the Anglican Church Schools League.

These gondolas, pictured on Ross Creek, formed part of a spectacular “Venetian Carnival” in Townsville in August 1929. Victoria Bridge is visible in the background.

Photo: James Cook University, NQID No. 3544 from E.R. (Bob) Hayles Album.

Described as “the most enchanting thing ever seen in Townsville”, Ross Creek was transformed into a scene resembling the Grand Canal of Venice, with brightly illuminated launches and gondolas that conveyed ticket holders from the Harbour Board pontoon to the Seamen’s Mission Hall, where a grand ball was held.

Mr I. MacDiarmid, whose artistic efforts in this regard were considered a triumph, had converted the grounds of the Seamen’s Mission Hall into an Italian garden. The Townsville Daily Bulletin reported on what they believed was “the brightest scene ever witnessed in Townsville”:

“From 7.30 music could be heard floating from the launch Malanda which was gaily decorated and had been anchored in midstream, and the launches and gondolas were busy taking people to the landing place at the Seamen’s Institute.

The slip was decorated with coloured lights, flags and streamers and as one walked out of the boathouse the paths each side were flanked with flowering rose bushes and on through an archway of wisteria through which showed coloured lights and then into the garden itself which resembled fairyland.

It was a revelation to see the transformation from a barren piece of ground to the brightly flowering garden. Beds of poppies bordered the stage and round the outskirts were beds of chrysanthemums, tulips, lillies and delphiniums.”

The evening began with an Italian quartet, whose members strolled through the crowd playing mandolins and guitars, followed by a tambourine dance performed by eight young ladies.

Later, twelve couples danced a traditional Minuetto, which was considered to be the attraction of the evening. The ladies wore bright floral frocks with plain bodices and the men wore suits to match their partner’s frock and all wore white wigs.

The Bulletin reporter described another dance:

“The Neapolitan Dance, the Tarantella, was most attractive and one realised the skill of the dancers when they saw them doing the intricate steps and the vim they put into it from start to finish. They deservedly received a vociferous encore and responded immediately.

The girls wore bright red skirts bordered with black, white blouses and boleros and a flat white bow on their heads and carried tambourines. The men wore black trousers, white shirts, coloured sashes and handkerchiefs on their heads.”

Catering for the evening was entrusted to Mrs J. Norris, who, together with a willing band of helpers that included 20 waitresses, provided supper for 500 people.

According to the Bulletin, if not for the work of Mr Bob Hayles, the water part of the entertainment would have been impossible.

“His launches, and those of Mr Sell, too, were at the disposal of the people and he superintended the construction of the gondolas and made it all safe for those who were inclined to be mistrustful of the water.

Mr Satini’s boat won the prize for the best-illuminated boat and it certainly was a very pretty sight as it sailed up and down the harbour. Mr F. Willmett’s Ariadne also came in for a lot of praise. Mr Tuesley won the prize for best gondola.”

An 1880s Observatory on The Strand

Yesterday’s solar eclipse and all the excitement that went with it, got me thinking about how a telescope used by the British to track the Transit of Venus from southern Queensland in 1882 ended up in a private observatory on the Strand, in Townsville.

Edwin Norris, town solicitor and amateur astronomer, purchased the astronomical telescope and then had an observatory built to house it, at his residence on the corner of King Street and The Strand (opposite the Criterion Hotel).  Norris went to great lengths to ensure that the telescope was housed correctly, studying the design of other observatories before commissioning his own.  He visited the government observatories in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, as well as a number of private ones.

This image shows damage to buildings on The Strand after Cyclone Sigma in 1896.  It shows the Criterion Hotel at the corner of The Strand and King Street, (roughly centre right). 
Photo: CityLibraries Townsville Local History Collection.

At the time, the telescope was more than twice the size of the telescope in the government observatory at Brisbane and was described as being ‘a very fine achromatic equatorial telescope’.  In 1884 the Brisbane Courier printed this information about the observatory:

“The observatory consists of a room 13ft. by 13ft., with walls 8ft. 6in. high from the floor. The wall plates of hardwood are continued 7ft. beyond the building north and south, and form a railway from end to end supported from below and well braced. There are eight small railway wheels 4in. in diameter, which were specially made at the Townsville foundry for the purpose, fitted into iron frames morticed into the     plates to which the roof is fixed. The roof is made of American pine boards 3 1/2 in. by 1in. tongued and grooved, upon a strong light frame of Oregon pine and covered with galvanised iron, and forms the segment of a circle from the east wall over to the west wall, and is divided in the middle east and west, one half running north, the other south, on the railway, so that the observer can separate the two parts of the roof a little and adjust a canvas, or other light shutter or screen, over the parts not in actual use, and thus well see the sun, planets, and many of the principal constellations, including Orion, which, in our latitude, always attain a good meridian altitude, or he can run the parts of the roof out to the full extent, north and south, leaving the whole of the room uncovered, and conduct his observations in the open air, and without otherwise interfering with the integrity of the room.”[1]

Norris died in April 1892 and his telescope and other astronomical instruments were listed for sale in January 1897, along with an extensive portfolio of real estate.  Norris owned valuable freehold land on the Strand, Palmer Street, Flinders Street and also in Bowen, and held shares in the Townsville Land and Investment Company.  Norris was also a keen yachtsman, and owned the yacht Maud. 

Another observatory existed in early north Queensland at Irvinebank, a tin mining town near Herberton.  Around 1910, Dr William Evan McFarlane built an observatory with a rotating dome behind his home, to house his 7 inch telescope. The John Oxley Library has an image of this observatory at http://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/204140

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[1] Brisbane Courier, 16 October 1884.