Places

Some places of interest in Queensland and beyond.

A fence with a difference

July 2006

 Fence Phillips Sleeper

Just another fence? This fence is adjacent to the Gulf Development Road between Georgetown and Croydon in north Queensland. Well yes there is a difference, the main post is a Phillips railway sleeper. Most railway lines in the 19th century were constructed with timber sleepers. On the line between Normanton and Croydon, the supervising Engineer George Phillips designed steel sleepers that could be laid without the need for ballast. Phillips patented the design but because of cost were not widely used elsewhere.

How some ‘spare’ sleepers were able to be used for this fence is unknown. There is approximately two kilometres of fence with Phillips sleepers used as strainer posts.

See Location

Burns Philp store, Normanton

July 2006

Burns Philp

This building was built in the mid 1880s by James Burns and Robert Philp, a former premier of Queensland. The store was built during a period of pastoral expansion in the Gulf. Normanton had become the major port for the region and the construction of the Normanton-Croydon railway line boosted the company’s business.

The building is one of several in the town for the period of its growth and prosperity in the late 19th century.

Bancroft sea baths

May 2006

bancroft sea baths

bancroft sea baths

These unusual features are located on the foreshore at Deception Bay.
They were made for Dr Joseph Bancroft and his family. Joseph Bancroft
was a leading Queensland medical practitioner and researcher during the
19th century who has a property at Deception Bay. The baths were cut out
of a sandstone outcrop on the foreshore.

One of the baths was possibly intially constructed for Joseph’s wife,
Ann. Ann had an illness and sea bathing was recommended as a cure. The
larger bath has timber steps for easy access.

 

See location

Ideraway Bridge

May 2006

The most unusual bridge in Queensland. This bridge is located on the
Maryborough to Gayndah railway line, not far from Gayndah.
It is technically called a deck-type pin-jointed fishbelly truss main
span bridge. The truss was used as falsework in the construction of Macrossan
Bridge across the Burdekin River near Charters Towers. A case of waste
not, want not.

Bundaberg Lutheran Church

May 2006

A church with a difference. Designed by Karl Langer, this Lutheran Church erected in the late 1950s is a prominent landmark in Bundaberg. The building is distinguished by two verses on the front wall, John 3:16 and 1 John 4:11-12.