There once was a creek somewhere in your neighbourhood, flowing where no creek flows today. Perhaps it flowed through a nearby park, or beneath what is now a busy street. Maybe it flowed through your own backyard.
Whatever this creek’s story may be, it is a story worth knowing, for it is the story of how your neighbourhood once was, and how it became the landscape that you know today.
Here, you will find the stories of creeks and their catchments from across Brisbane and beyond.
Latest activity
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oncewasacreek, once more!
I was beginning to think I’d never write this post. After eight years of inactivity (or ten if you ignore the two hopeful posts in 2018), this project seemed to have run its course. I’d come to accept that I might never get around to reviving it. But, I am delighted to say, oncewasacreek has…
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Map overlays, revisited
Historical maps and survey plans were central to oncewasacreek from its inception. Reading about Milton’s lost creek in the archives of Trove and in Matthew Condon’s book Brisbane was intriguing, but seeing Western Creek depicted on one of the early maps — probably it was McKellar’s map from 1895 — was for me a revelation.…
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Movement at the horse paddock
Recently, while driving along Rainworth Road past the south-east corner of the governor’s property, I noticed something new. Running through this grassy area, which I understand to be the governor’s old horse paddock, were two rows of newly planted trees. Interspersed among the new trees, which still were housed in their protective plastic tents, were…
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Tiger, brandy, oyster saloon: A new way to read the Brisbane Courier
It’s reboot time! It’s been eighteen months since I last posted here, and four years since I started my PhD. But my thesis now is nearly out of the way, which means I can return to more recreational forms of writing. It also means I can unveil what I have been working on to keep…
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Navigating the history of Norman Creek
While I continue to neglect my own website, I did recently find time to contribute to someone else’s. In collaboration with Trish FitzSimons, who recently produced a wonderful series of short films featured in the Museum of Brisbane’s Navigating Norman Creek exhibit, and with support from the Brisbane City Council’s Community History Grant, I contributed…
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May Day mayday! A tale of extraordinary weather and extra-ordinary lasagne.
It’s been a long time between posts. As per the forecast, my PhD has reduced this blog from a bubbling stream to a lifeless dry creek bed. But any stream can be revived with a little rain. And with a lot of rain, it all comes flooding back. ‘A lot of rain’ is one way…