Why so many Blue Bird Cafes?

Over the years Queensland appears to have had more than a few cafés that were called the ‘Blue Bird’.  I’ve found mention of at least seven Blue Bird Cafés in north Queensland, including Townsville, Cairns, Innisfail, Tully, Richmond, Julia Creek and Winton.  I’d be interested to know why that particular name was so popular, so if any readers have any thoughts on that, I’d be keen to read your comments.

Blue Bird Cafe, Julia Creek, Queensland, c.1948.

The image above is of the Blue Bird Café in Julia Creek, around 1948.  I was told it was built in 1934 by my Grandfather’s eldest brother – Herb Wilder.  The café was built for Bert Burrows, who operated the Blue Bird until he sold it to Mrs Flo Watson, in 1943.  Although it was the era of the Great Depression, there appears to have been plenty of construction work going on out in Julia Creek at the time, as this article from the North Queensland Register, dated 22 December 1934, shows:

Despite the fact that the seasonal outlook is bad, the town still continues to go ahead in the building line.  Building contractor Herb Wilder is now putting the finishing touches on Mr Bert Burrows’ new café in Burke St next to the Post Office.  Mr Burrows hopes to be well established in the Blue Bird by Christmas.  Mr Wilder will then go on to a new residence for Mr George Peut at the western end of Goldring Street and when completed this building will greatly improve the appearance of the town. 

Ownership of the Blue Bird changed hands a number of times, and in 1950, Julia Creek’s Blue Bird Café was destroyed by a fire in the early hours of the 19^th August.  The cause of the fire was unknown but it was a great loss to the town, as it was the only café in town at the time.

 
Innisfail’s Blue Bird Café appears to have been perhaps the most ornate of all the Blue Bird Cafés in north Queensland. The beautiful Art Deco façade is still much admired to this day.  The café was built in 1936 to replace an earlier timber café of the same name. 

 

Blue Bird Cafe, Innisfail, Queensland.

It was run by a Greek family until the 1970s and consisted of a bakery (in the basement), a café at street level (where staff wore bluebird brooches on their uniforms) and a dance hall/function room was located on the upper floor.

The following memory of Townsville’s Blue Bird Café was written by Barbara Mathiesen.  Thanks for sharing this wonderful memory with us Barbara!

My Blue Bird Café

In the 1950s a trip to town was always a great delight to me, especially if it ended with a trip to the Blue Bird Café. 

Flinders Street had a great variety of shops, a few hotels, some banks and offices and plenty of cafes.  Shopping took time, each transaction taking place across a counter where the assistant brought out a variety of sizes and styles of the item being sought after, long discussions about the virtues of different brands, materials, sizes etc. were entered into and by the end of the morning most people were ready for a cold drink or a cup of tea, at the very least. 

The Bluebird Café, owned and run by the Marendy family, was perhaps the biggest and best of the cafés in Townsville – it certainly stands out in my mind. 

The Blue Bird was next to the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac Bank), and right at the front, on the right, was the long, high counter of a milk bar. Customers perched on high stools to enjoy the great variety of cold drinks and ice-creams, sandwiches and cups of tea or coffee that were served here. 

Opposite the milk bar was a similar counter where cakes and pastries could be purchased to take away.  Behind that was the kitchen, a large enclosed space from which emanated an incredible amount of clattering and jangling as the cooks and kitchen hands pushed a huge amount of food and all the accompanying pots and pans, plates and cutlery through the preparation and clearing up processes. After a visit to the Blue Bird my sister and I played cafes as we washed up – and were soon in trouble because our mother didn’t like the rather splendid crashing and jangling sound effects we made with her plates and silver. 

The wide passage between the milk bar and cake counter led to the café, which occupied the full width of the premises. Several rows of fixed tables ran from front to back – a low divider to give privacy running between each pair of tables. 

Waitresses took orders and placed a jug of water and glasses on the table.  We usually had a sandwich, or sometimes pie and vegetables.  Of course the menu stretched to much more than that, but they were our family favourites.  A ham sandwich eaten in a café beat a home-made one hands down. On special occasions we would be allowed an ice-cream sundae, and I’m sure it was at the Blue Bird that I first had a parfait - a tall glass filled with layers of fruit, ice cream and jelly and eaten with a long handled spoon.  Very special. 

My favourite memory of the Blue Bird was when we’d had a long walk, perhaps after visiting our Dad in the General Hospital in Eyre Street.  Before catching the bus home, Mum would sometimes take us to the Blue Bird for an orange drink – and on special occasions, an orange drink with ice cream in it.

 

Like all the cafes the Blue Bird was a great social hub and a great place for people watching, albeit very discreetly.  How I’d love to go there again.

Barbara Mathiesen.

Blue Bird Cafe, Townsville, Queensland, 1946.  CityLibraries Townsville Local History Collection.

Unfortunately the above picture was the only image I could find of Townsville’s Blue Bird Café.  If you have a better photo in your possession, I’d love to see it – Trisha Fielding.

Milk jug from the Blue Bird Cafe, Cairns, recently sold on eBay.

Rat Plague in Western Queensland

In September 1950, The Northern Miner reported that rats had begun to invade Julia Creek in ‘rather large numbers’.  It stated that for some time prior to this, reports had been coming in from the country areas that rats were very numerous, and now they had reached the town of Julia Creek.  A report from Muttaburra in January 1951 stated that ‘hundreds of starving rats are invading homes and gardens at flood-bound Muttaburra’ and that residents there were ‘killing an average of 15 to 20 rats a day in their homes or backyards’.

A mob of sheep on Eddington Station, near Julia Creek, Queensland.
Image:  State Library of Queensland.

My late Grandmother Evelyn Wilder told me her memories of the rat plague on a sheep station near Julia Creek in 1951:

“I went out west with Al in 1951 when he went back shearing.  To Quambetook Station in the Julia Creek district.  I was going to cook for the shearers.  I wasn’t feeling too good at the time, because I was pregnant with our second child.  I remember getting there this first night in a hard-backed old lorry.  I heard this dreadful noise as I got off the truck.  I said, ‘what’s that noise?’  Nobody answered me, but it was rats.  Hordes and hordes of rats - millions of them.  Somebody said there was a rat plague.  All I’d ever seen was plagues of grasshoppers.  What a shock I was in for!  Those rats were about a foot long.  Every step you took you had to kick them out of the way.  It was horrible.  It was impossible for me to sleep at night.  I’d look over and see Al sleeping, and the rats were on his face, chewing on him and he was sleeping through the lot.  I’d wake him up and say, ‘the rats are chewing you’.  He’d say, ‘go to sleep’.  I said, ‘I can’t sleep, we’ve got a baby here, they’ll chew her’.  I wasn’t game to sleep, you see.  So I got to be a nervous wreck.

The rats would chew through everything.  They’d get in the pantry - it didn’t matter that it was locked up - they chewed through boards and everything to get to the stuff in the pantry.  All night long you’d hear peas and other stuff dropping.  You know, they used to get into the bread.  They would get right inside of it and there’d be nothing left of it next day.  You’d get up in the morning and there’d be no food in the pantry.  Of course, I was supposed to cook for the men – prepare five meals a day, seven days a week.  And there was no refrigeration on Quambetook in those days.  The going was very tough with 120 degree heat.  We had canvas water bags to cool off the water. 

In the end we put a piece of tin up, so they couldn’t get into the pantry.  We had a bit of peace after that.  I’ve never seen rats like them.  They used to shriek and squeal, it was indescribable.  In the end, the baby got very sick.  We had to get the Ambulance out and we went in to the hospital at Julia Creek.  After that I brought her home (to Townsville).  She was on a diet for a long time of dry toast and Vegemite.  I think it was the rats.  I’ve never seen anything like that and never want to again.  They’d eat the country out as they went along. The rats were like a carpet, all the rats going along.”

 

Sources:

The Nothern Miner, 30 September 1950, p. 3.

Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 21 January 1951, p. 1.
Townsville Daily Bulletin, 4 July 1950, p. 2.
Interview with Evelyn Wilder, private collection of Trisha Fielding.