In December 1911, a representative meeting of local citizens was held at Paton’s Hall to form the Manly Progress Association. Previously, the needs of the Manly community had been represented by a larger, district organisation, the Wynnum and Manly Progress Association (established 1903). The MPA comprised local residents or ratepayers, who acted in concert with, and sometimes against, the relevant level of government, to promote civic improvements in Manly and Lota. A principle concern was the improvement of public facilities along the Manly foreshore in order to attract day visitors and longer-term holiday makers. Examples of other MPA activities include lobbying the Postmaster-General’s Department for the provision of more public telephones; and approaching the Brisbane City Council for the resurfacing of the Manly Beach Reserve.
The MPA continued to meet at various venues such as Paton’s Hall, the Tidbury Rooms or the state school, in Manly, until 1928. The MPA saw a definite need for a public hall for the local area. Fundraising for the hall’s construction was conducted by the MPA. A variety of activities, such the annual formal ball that began in 1927 at Manly’s Strand Picture Theatre, a 1928 community fete along the Manly foreshore and appeals for public donations were conducted. From 1929, the MPA began meeting at the 184 Melville Terrace, in what was temporary accommodation in a small building. This site comprised 36.2 perches of land that had been in the ownership of Mary Hannah Wright, the wife of Thomas Wright, since 1894. She had mortgaged the land through a loan from developer Benjamin F. Cribb in 1905 and then again on the 14th of April 1927 via a loan from Benjamin S.F. Cribb. The second mortgage may have been used to fund the construction of the first building used by the Manly Progress Association. On the 3rd of April 1928, this property was transferred from Mary H. Wright to a board of trustees comprising Richard Russell (MPA president), Henry Reese and Thomas Goodman. The MPA is first listed as having ‘Rooms’ at this address in the 1929 - 1930 Edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories. The fundraising for a new purpose-built MPA hall was hampered by the need to pay off monies owing on the existing MPA Rooms at 184 Melville Terrace. Thus the 1928 Manly Fete’s profits had to be divided between “the building fund to pay off the present debt on the association’s meeting hall, and inaugurate a new fund for the progress hall which it contemplates building shortly”.
By February 1932, £300 had been raised and the MPA decided that “the outstanding need of Manly was a public hall worthy of the large community", with a frontage of 147 feet agreed upon. In 1935, the MPA decided that the proposed dimensions of the new community hall were to be 84 feet by 48 feet; while its public accessibility was ensured by the hall being built in the centre of the Manly business district. To complete the funding of the new building, the three trustees secured a mortgage through the Queensland Government’s State Advances Corporation on the 3rd of March 1936.
As a result, construction of the second MPA hall began with a stump capping ceremony held on Sunday the 29th of March 1936. The new hall retained the name of the Manly Progress Association Rooms and was completed prior to August 1936. Furnished with items such as a piano, it was used for a wide variety of functions, including dances. During World War II (1939 - 1945), the MPA Rooms was the centre of local efforts to aid the District Patriotic Fund.
In World War I (1914 - 1918), Australia realised that there would be a need to provide a community-based support organisation for its returning servicemen. A national body, called the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA) was founded in New South Wales on the 6th of June 1916. While this national body included Queensland in its coverage, a separate state association, affiliated to the national organisation, received a separate Charter on the 25th of April 1917. In 1919, the national returned soldiers and sailors association was reorganised, with the state body renamed the RSSILA Queensland Branch. A Brisbane District association was formed on Anzac Day 1926. It was renamed the South Eastern District Association in 1928.
Across Brisbane’s suburbs, groups of Great War veterans formed local Returned Soldiers and Sailors clubs that became known as Sub-Branches of the District and the national Associations. While unofficial commemorations of the landing at Anzac Cove had been occurring since the first anniversary on the 25th of April 1916, an official Anzac Day, with its attached public holiday, was not declared until 1927. The Sub-Branches were responsible for organising the local Dawn Service, a local Anzac Day March (if required), celebrations after the March and the Remembrance Day commemorations on the 11th of November, each year. The Wynnum Sub-Branch also looked after the needs of the veterans who had settled around the Manly-Lota District, particularly with repatriation health care access, the Soldiers Settlers Scheme housing and funeral notices for recently deceased members.
The Manly-Lota Sub-Branch of the RSSILA was formed at a local hut on the 26th of September 1936. The new Sub-Branch was created so that the local ex-servicemen would not need to continually travel to Wynnum to attend meetings and socialise. Soon after, the Sub-Branch moved its meetings and services to the MPA Rooms. However the Sub-Branch wanted a club house that was separate to the MPA Rooms/community hall. Together with the local RSSILA Women’s Auxiliary, the Sub-Branch commenced fundraising in 1938. Its members continued to meet at the MPA Rooms until the 4th of October 1940 when the Manly-Lota Sub-Branch clubhouse was opened at the corner of Nelson Parade and the Esplanade, Manly. That same year, the RSSILA changed its title to the Returned Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Imperial League of Australia (RSSAILA) in recognition of those serving in the Royal Australian Air Force (formed 1921).
In the postwar period Manly, like other outer Brisbane suburbs, rapidly urbanised as it filled with new residents and new housing estates. The Manly Progress Association declined somewhat after World War II, but continued to meet until 1981. A contributing factor to the MPA’s decline may have been the death of trustees Thomas Goodman on the 1st of February 1940 and Richard Russell on the 8th of April 1949, followed by the retirement of trustee Henry Reese in 1950. On the 20th of December 1950, Goodman, Russell, and Reese were replaced as trustees of the 184 Melville Terrace site by Kevin F.J. Keegan, Oswald M. Addison and John W. H. McMaster.
Because the Nelson Parade RSSAILA clubhouse was cramped and unsatisfactory, the Sub-Branch decided to obtain its old meeting place, the Manly Progress Association Rooms. Negotiations for the full transfer of ownership continued throughout 1951, aided by one of the new trustees, Kevin Keegan, being a Sub-branch member. The transfer of the property was finalised on the 14th of May 1952, when Kevin Keegan, William M. Gunn, and Patrick V. Ryan, of the Manly-Lota Sub-Branch were appointed as replacement trustees of the property. The Manly Progress Association Rooms became the Manly-Lota Memorial Hall.
The RSSAILA’s Manly Sub-Branch sought Brisbane City Council approval to extend the Manly-Lota Memorial Hall on the 4th of February 1954. The RSSAILA became the Returned Services League (RSL) in 1965. The trustees of the Returned Services League of Australia (Queensland Branch) South-Eastern District finally gained the certificate of title for this property on the 28th of October 1988. In 1990, the Returned Services League was renamed the Returned and Services League that emphasised the organisation represented both past and current serviceman and women; while at the same time retaining its well-known abbreviation of the RSL. The Manly-Lota Sub-Branch received its current RSL Charter on the 30th of July 2004.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
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The Hamilton Town Council proposed erecting a memorial at Cameron Rocks as a memorial to the soldiers who left the town to fight in the Great War. The project was started during the war but the Council was prevented by Commonwealth edict from raising money. It remained in abeyance until 1922, when the Mayor Alderman C.M Jenkinson received further donations. In 1924, there was enough money to start but not complete the memorial.
It was planned to erect a pagoda in the form of a Victoria Cross surmounted by a tower with a four face clock with a water fountain installed in the centre of the pagoda. The memorial was unveiled in its present form by the Governor of Queensland Lieutenant-General Sir John Goodwin on the 16th August 1931.
Front Inscription:
Dedicated
To
The Men
Of
Hamilton
Who
Enlisted
In The
Great War
1914 - 1918
Source: Monument Australia.
Tags: war monument memorial memory anzac anzacs ww1 ww2 history historic heritage hamilton brisbane moreton bay queensland australia
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The Australian-American Memorial at Lyndon B. Johnson Place in the grounds of Newstead Park, commemorates the contribution of people of the United States of America to the defence of Australia during World War Two
In 1951, the Australian-American Association erected the first American war memorial in Australia. Newstead House was occupied by American forces during World War Two. Further plaques were added to the memorial in 1988 and 1995.
The foundation stone for the Australian American Memorial was laid in Newstead Park by Professor John Bostock, President of the Australian American Association on the 3rd May 1951 during Coral Sea week. £2000 had been allocated for the memorial. The memorial was unveiled by the Governor of Queensland, Sir John Lavarack on the 3rd May 1952. A former U.S. Army private, Mr Taylor D. Marsh, who was now a Sydney engineer, represented the Governor of Montana, John W. Bonner.
Front Inscription:
They passed this way
This monument was erected by the people of Queensland in grateful memory of the contribution made by the people of the United States of America to the defence of Australia during the 1939 - 45 war
Long may it stand as a symbol of unity of English speaking peoples in the cause of freedom
Plaque:
Australia
1788 - 1988
This plaque commemorates 200 years of Australian American friendship, in peace and war.
May the next 200 years bring only peace.
Back Inscription:
Australia Remembers
1945 - 1995
Inb the fiftieth year of Victory in the Pacific this plaque is dedicated to the Australian & American service men & women who sacrifriced their lives so that we may enjoy peace
We will remember them.
Source: Monument Australia.
Tags: war monument memorial memory anzac anzacs ww1 ww2 history historic heritage newstead house newstead brisbane moreton bay queensland australia
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The Australian-American Memorial at Lyndon B. Johnson Place in the grounds of Newstead Park, commemorates the contribution of people of the United States of America to the defence of Australia during World War Two
In 1951, the Australian-American Association erected the first American war memorial in Australia. Newstead House was occupied by American forces during World War Two. Further plaques were added to the memorial in 1988 and 1995.
The foundation stone for the Australian American Memorial was laid in Newstead Park by Professor John Bostock, President of the Australian American Association on the 3rd May 1951 during Coral Sea week. £2000 had been allocated for the memorial. The memorial was unveiled by the Governor of Queensland, Sir John Lavarack on the 3rd May 1952. A former U.S. Army private, Mr Taylor D. Marsh, who was now a Sydney engineer, represented the Governor of Montana, John W. Bonner.
Front Inscription:
They passed this way
This monument was erected by the people of Queensland in grateful memory of the contribution made by the people of the United States of America to the defence of Australia during the 1939 - 45 war
Long may it stand as a symbol of unity of English speaking peoples in the cause of freedom
Plaque:
Australia
1788 - 1988
This plaque commemorates 200 years of Australian American friendship, in peace and war.
May the next 200 years bring only peace.
Back Inscription:
Australia Remembers
1945 - 1995
Inb the fiftieth year of Victory in the Pacific this plaque is dedicated to the Australian & American service men & women who sacrifriced their lives so that we may enjoy peace
We will remember them.
Source: Monument Australia.
Tags: war monument memorial memory anzac anzacs ww1 ww2 history historic heritage newstead house newstead brisbane moreton bay queensland australia
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The RSL (Retired Serviceman's League) Hall at Rosalie, formerly the Rosalie School of Arts Commemoration Hall, is a large timber building roofed in corrugated iron. It faces Nash Street in Rosalie, a locality that is now part of the suburb of Paddington. Since opening in 1928 the RSL Hall has hosted a wide variety of community activities. The ground floor of the Nash Street frontage, below the level of the main hall, was designed to accommodate two shops.
The first major land sales in the Paddington area occurred in 1859, when country lots were sold for £2/10/- an acre. The steep terrain hampered transport, and people sought ridge-top sites, timber cutting sites, or cultivated vegetable patches on the lower ground closer to the river. The first tracks followed the ridgelines, and it was along these narrow corridors that closer development initially occurred. In the late 1870s, Paddington was known as "Ti Tree Flats", and its postal address was simply "back of the gaol", being outside the Hale Street boundary of the city. There was a village at Caxton Street, and some houses on Given Terrace. Further out, the scenery was dotted with trees, vegetable patches, goats, tents, humpies, cottages, and the odd elegant mansion. J.C. Heussler built the stately home "Fernberg" in 1865, and in 1920 the Queensland Government purchased it as a residence for the Governor. During the 1880s a pattern developed whereby shops were clustered near major intersections, the affluent occupied the highest ground, aspiring artisans occupied the slopes, and poorer citizens built in the gullies. The Ithaca Shire was created in 1887, and by 1903 Paddington was a densely populated suburb of the town of Ithaca. The tramway reached Latrobe Terrace in 1898, and Fernberg Road 1909, which spurred development.
Rosalie is a small locality within Paddington, covering about 1000 by 800 metres, on ground that slopes down towards Gregory Park. It is probably named after the station of a Darling Downs grazier, John F. McDougall, who in 1882 purchased portion 225 of the Parish of Enoggera. This portion contained the future site of the RSL Hall. The 1920s saw increased development in Rosalie, and the Rosalie Progress Association sponsored a Rosalie School of Arts Committee, for the purpose of erecting a Memorial Hall.
The first Mechanic's Institutes or Schools of Arts were established in Britain in the early 1800s and were intended to assist self-improvement and to promote moral, social, and intellectual growth, by providing lectures, discussions, and lending libraries to a rising middle class. At the time there were no public libraries and books were expensive, so that access to books by borrowing as subscribers provided an important educational and recreational service. The first School of Arts committee in Queensland was established in Brisbane in 1849 with the aim of 'the advancement of the community in literary, philosophic and scientific subjects'. As towns and districts became established, local committees were formed to establish schools of arts, and they became one of the principal sources of adult education. The buildings usually included a public hall for debates and performances, a subscription library, and a reading room. The erecting of a School of Arts in a particular community was seen as a sign that that community had "come of age".
However, the Rosalie School of Arts would also serve as a war memorial. The outpouring of grief in Australia that accompanied the deaths of 60, 000 servicepeople in World War One, and the fact that the dead were buried overseas, led to a period of memorial construction across the nation. The Toowong Town Council offered the Rosalie School of Arts Committee a site in Gregory Park, next to the Milton State School, for the Rosalie School of Arts Memorial Hall. Instead, the School of Arts Committee held a fete in March 1926, raising the money to buy the current site at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Nash Street. The builder W. Moody designed the hall in 1926, but the Architectural Firm Hall and Prentice, which also designed the Brisbane City Hall and the Tattersall's Club, refined Moody's plan. At the stump-capping ceremony on the 9th of July 1927, official guests included the Governor, Sir John Goodwin; Brisbane's Mayor William Jolly; Colonel Donald Cameron, Member of House of Representatives for Brisbane, and a decorated veteran of the Boer War and World War One; and Edward M. Hanlon, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Ithaca. Hanlon noted that the site was preferable to Gregory Park. The latter is labelled as "Red Jacket Swamp" on an 1895 map of the area.
Built by Moody, the hall cost £2,650, plus £550 for the library and furnishings, with a mortgage of £1,500 to the Public Curator. Funds to pay off the debt were raised by selling three-year membership subscriptions, and Life Memberships at five guineas. More funds were raised by including two shops on the ground floor frontage of the hall, numbered at 16 and 18 Nash Street. The Rosalie School of Arts Commemoration Hall was officially opened on the 28th of June 1928 by Mayor Jolly. The purpose of the hall was to bring residents together on social basis, while the library and reading room would help in their education. In mid 1928 work was also started on the Rosalie Marist Brothers monastery and school, and the Rainworth State School was opened.
Although it later experienced some damage during the 1974 Brisbane floods, the RSL Hall has accommodated a wide range of community activities over the years. The Rosalie Kindergarten operated from the hall between 1929 and 1935, and the Ithaca Sub-Branch of the Returned Sailors' Soldiers' and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia (RSSAILA, later known as the Returned Servicemen's League of Australia, or RSL) was founded in the hall in November 1934. In 1938 an Elections Tribunal was held in the hall, during an appeal against the election of E.M. Hanlon, then Minister for Home Affairs. It was home to the Ithaca Youth Club between 1945 - 1950, and also hosted a Buffalo Lodge for many years. Other community activities have included public meetings, concerts, exhibitions, fancy dress balls, ANZAC Day commemorations, martial arts classes, and indoor bowls. In 1946 the library collection was sent to the Brisbane City Council library in the former Ithaca Town Hall. That same year Premier Hanlon introduced a bill that was passed as the Rosalie School of Arts and Commemoration Hall Transfer Act 1946, which transferred the property to the Ithaca sub-branch of the RSL. In 1991 an amalgamation of sub-branches formed the Ithaca-South Brisbane RSL BCOF sub-branch.
Between 1942 and 1957, on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights the hall became the 300-seat Beverley Theatre, with a commercial photographer showing films. Other theatres in the area included the Plaza Theatre, Latrobe Terrace (1930 - 1960) and the Paddington Theatre, Caxton Street (1923 - 1979). In 2003 and 2004 the Cine-Retro Film Society, which showed pre-1960 movies in a suitable atmosphere, briefly revived this former use.
The shops below the hall have also had various tenants. Number 16 Nash Street contained a Dressmaker in 1930, Trump Cycles from 1938 to 1942, and a sub-centre of the Maternal and Child Welfare Service from 1942, which was still open one day a week in 1978. Number 18 Nash Street contained a Bootmaker's business between 1935 and 1947. The RSL sold the property in 2004, and now leases the hall for its monthly meetings and commemorative events.
Some changes to the property over the years include the addition of a glass-roofed entry, and a timber passageway linking it to the original northern wing of the hall; an awning on the north side has been removed recently; the RSL renovated the interior of the hall, and the shops have been refurbished. On the northern side of the hall, one of the doorway landings has been fully enclosed, with the outside stairs being removed. The shop awning has also been simplified, losing its original mouldings and detailing. Five rotating galvanised iron vents were added sometime after 1938, projecting from either side of the ridge of the roof, and these were replaced with new vents in recent years. The first floor rooms above the shops now have three triple-hung sash windows, instead of the original small pane casement windows, which can be seen around the rest of the hall. A sign also projects from the middle of the front gable, which was originally decorated with the words 1928 Rosalie School of Arts Commemoration Hall.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
Tags: school arts school of arts library educate education educational hall venue meet meeting meetup meeting place place gather gathering function functions soldier soldiers memory memorial service servicemen anzac anzacs WWI lest we forget building architecture architect vintage old antique classic unique culture cultural history historic heritage rosalie paddington brisbane queensland australia
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