Today I continue my Movember series. You can check the first post here.
When I was living in Highgate Hill and West End I often walked on Edmondstone St so it was interesting to learn about the person whose name the street bears. The other street was Hardgrave Rd in West End where I used to live few years ago. When preparing this week’s list of Brisbane Mayors I’ve also learnt where the name of a suburb of Bardon comes from and who was the author of “Queensland garden manual”. These and some other facts you can learn from short bios below.
Image: “G. Edmondstone, Mayor of Brisbane, 1863”, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Image Number 63658 via SLQ
George Edmondstone (1809-1883) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1832, he arrived in New South Wales and had businesses in Sydney and Maitland. In 1840 he purchased Normanby Plains Station in Queensland which he sold this in 1842 and was one of the early free settlers in Brisbane, working as a butcher. He was an Alderman in Brisbane 1859-66 and the Mayor in 1863-64. As mayor he had much to do with the planning of the first Brisbane bridge and the town hall. In the Queensland Legislative Assembly he represented East Moreton in 1860-67, Brisbane in 1869-73 and Wickham in 1873-77. He retired from business because of a heart complaint and died at his home in Breakfast Creek on 23 February 1883.
[Sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Wikipedia]
Image: “Joshua Jeays, 1909”, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Image number 109863 via SLQ
Joshua Jeays (1812-1881) was the third Mayor of Brisbane. He was born in Leicestershire, 1812. He married Sarah Edwyn in 1838 and they and their three children immigrated to Moreton Bay in 1853. Jeays purchased land and built ‘Roma Villa’ on the corner of Upper Roma and Skew Streets, Petrie Terrace (an area then known as ‘the Green Hills’), where he lived with his wife and family. Then he bought 39 acres at the corner of Cooper’s Camp Road on which he built Bardon House after Bardon Hill in his native Leicestershire. Joshua also built homes of prominent Brisbane residents such as John Petrie and the Cribb family. Joshua Jeays was an Alderman from 1859 to 1867 and was Mayor in 1864.
[Sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Wikipedia]
Image: “Alderman Albert John Hockings”, Brisbane City Council, Identifier BCC-B120-33422 via BCC Library
Albert John Hockings (1826–1890) arrived in Australia with his parents in 1841. He was an importer and merchant of seeds, plants and agricultural implements. In 1845–46 he undertook a trading expedition on the brigantine Sarah Wilson to a number of South Pacific Islands, including Auckland (New Zealand), Tahiti, Samoa, and Tonga. He published a number of books on gardening such as “The flower garden in Queensland”, “Queensland garden manual”. Albert John Hockings was an alderman of the Brisbane Municipal Council in 1859–60 and 1864-67 and he was mayor in 1865 and 1867.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Image: “Alderman Richard Symes Warry”, Brisbane City Council, Identifier BCC-B120-33421 via BCC Library
Richard Symes Warry (1829-1891) was born about 1829 in England, son of Thomas Warry and Maria Symes. In 1851 in Brisbanehe married Mary Lydia Pratten, they had fourteen children. He died 12 March 1891 at his residence in Enoggera, aged 62 years. Richard Warry was a grocer and was one of the earliest of the Queen Street storekeepers, having had a shop for many years on the eastern side near the corner with Albert Street. Richard Warry was an Alderman of the Brisbane Municipal Council in 1862-1863 and 1865-1866. He was Mayor in 1866. He took a break from public life for a number of years and then returned as Alderman of the West Ward from 1883-1888 before finally retiring.
[Sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Wikipedia]
Image: “John Hardgrave, early resident and mayor of Brisbane, 1868-1869”, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Image number 63589 via SLQ
John Hardgrave, a local politician and Mayor of Brisbane, was born in Wicklow, Ireland, in 1826. He arrived in Sydney in 1843 and moved to Brisbane in 1848. As he thought the prospects were better in Brisbane than in Sydney, he encouraged the rest of his family to move from Sydney to Brisbane. In 1860 he purchased 6 acres (2.4 hectares) of land in the Brisbane suburb of West End. Hardgrave Road is named after him. He was in the boot trade to 1862 and was involved in local government from 1867 to 1890. He was Mayor of Brisbane in 1868 and 1870, first chairman of the Woolloongabba Divisional Board, Alderman for South Brisbane from 1888 to 1890, and chairman of the Waterworks Board from 1893.
[Sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Wikipedia]
Image: “William Pettigrew, Brisbane, ca. 1875”, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Image number 63572 via SLQ
William Pettigrew born on 26 August 1825 was the son of an Ayreshire farmer. He trained as a surveyor and as such arrived aboard the Fortitude in January 1849. He became a sawmiller, importing the first steam-powered sawmill in 1853. He was a member of a number of societies; including the Queensland Philosophical Society, the School of Arts Committee (along with Samuel Walker Griffith) and was a life-member of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society. William’s daughter Margaret married Philip, the eldest son of another Brisbane alderman and mayor, John Hardgrave (the previous photo).
[Sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Wikipedia]
Francis Murray was born in Sydney in 1838. He was a cabinetmaker, upholsterer, undertaker, and money lender, owned shares in mining companies, and had a store in Queen Street. He was an alderman 1867 – 1872 and mayor in 1871. Francis Murray died at age 34 in 1872 at Maryborough. His coffin was brought to Brisbane on the steamship “Lady Bowen” for the funeral at St Stephens Roman Catholic Cathedral and burial at the Paddington Cemetery.
[Sources: Wikipedia]
Please, check my next post with more biographies of Brisbane Mayors.
