Tag: maps
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Fun with maps
The icon at the top of this page, and the fuller version on the homepage, features a depiction of Western Creek from A.R. McKellar’s 1895 map of Brisbane overlaid onto the modern landscape. For me, this fusion captured the essence of what the site is about: gaining a deeper understanding the modern landscape though an…
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The swamp runneth over
Since starting this project, one thing I’ve been constantly looking out for is old maps. Unless there are some unpublished photos or drawings floating around (and I sincerely hope that there are), maps are the only visual record we have of the old Western Creek. Looking at maps of Brisbane from the late 1800s and…
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Time and tides
In John Oxley and the chain of ponds, I questioned whether Oxley could have found freshwater ponds downstream from Gregory Park, given that this part of the Western Creek is subject to regular inundation by the brackish tidal waters of the river. The tidal limit of the creek (or at least the drain) is no…
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The pond is not the spring
Today’s lesson: always go back to the source. One of the intriguing leads that I came across when I started my research was a letter to the Department of Land and Works from J.C. Heussler, the first owner of Fernberg (Government House). Well, actually I didn’t come across the letter. Rather, I found a quotation…