‘B’ is for Badila, Barnes and Berwick – naming the streets of Ingham town

 

Switching to Ingham town for the 'Bs' we have:

Badila Street. The variety of cane named Badila is characterized by its deep purple colour. It is a famous cultivar that was transported around the New World in the early plantation days, including to Australia and planted in the Herbert River district where it was one of predominant canes in the early decades of sugar cane cultivation.

Barnes Street. According to the HSC document Future Road Names - Hinchinbrook Shire Council the street could be named for local WW1 casualty, Frederick John Barnes, son of Jane Heard and Jesse Barnes. However, as the Council street naming records are so patchy and inconsistent there are a number of other candidates. A common practice was to name streets for councillors so the street could as easily be named for Alfred Barnes, Councillor 1919 (son of Alfred Barnes and Mary Harris) and a farmer at Macknade or Charles Grafton Barnes Councillor 1912-3, 1918 who was a grazier, owning Bronte and Blackrock. He retired to Southport.

Frederick and William Barnes. (Source: Hinchinbrook Shire Library photograph collection)

Berwick Street. The street is named for Fraser Berwick, surveyor, who surveyed west Ingham (west side of Palm Creek), which was government land and formerly known as the Camping Ground. He also surveyed the town of Halifax in 1885. He was replaced in 1885 by William Stanley Warren after whom Warren Street is named.

Bird Street. It is common for the district’s streets to be named for members of parliament. The street is most likely named for Valmond (Val) James Bird, born in Ingham. His parents were Walter James and Ruth Elizabeth Bird (née Thornton). Walter James was the son of Walter and Frances Bird (original European settlers in the district).  Val was a member of the Queensland Parliament (1969–1983). The record, Herbert District: Street, Road and Place Names-Origins, Hinchinbrook Shire Library, suggests that the street is named for the Mrs Bird who was resident owner of land that was subdivided for residential purposes. Like Swarbrick Street in which several generations of the Swarbrick family resided, Bird Street was once occupied by a number of Bird families and so simply could be named Bird Street for that reason as believed by a descendant.

Valmond (Val) James Bird (Source: Queensland Parliament: Former Member Details)

Blackburn Street. The street is named for Roy Blackburn, Councillor 1930-2, 1943.   His father was John Spence Blackburn, Scottish immigrant, who came to Australia in 1884. John was first a sugar boiler/ganger/overseer at Macknade Mill for the Neame brothers then a farmer at Macknade on his property of Burnside (a farm which he acquired from the Neames and which the family consequently worked).

Blackrock Road. The road is named for John Hull's property Blackrock. Blackrock was named for a large black rock which was visible on the adjacent low hills. John Hull and his family arrived in the district in 1872, where he attempted to grow tobacco and then took up cattle and dairying. Other names associated with the property are Alston and Barnes.

Blamey Street. Blamey Street is named for Field Marshall Sir Thomas Blamey, General of both the First and Second World Wars. He was the only Australian to attain Field Marshall rank.

Borello Street. The street was named for Ernesto Borello, Councillor continuously from 1946-1976. He was the Ingham born son of immigrant Italian parents. His mother was renowned midwife Angiolina Borello (nee Ruffiningo) who conducted a lying-in home at Lannercost. His father Avventino was an immigrant on the Jumna in 1891. Ernesto was married to Margaret Elizabeth (née Dennis).

Boyd Street. The street is named for Robert Mitchell Boyd, Councillor 1882-91, 1895-9. He was the owner of Ripple Creek Plantation and Mill (1883 -1908) with Wood Bros. He was married to Eliza Agnes (née Brown). When Eliza died in childbirth she was buried in the Ripple Creek Graveyard. The graveyard was obliterated when it was ploughed under for cane land.

Robert and Eliza Boyd (Source: Connor History ROBERT MITCHELL, ELIZA AGNES and EMILY BURTON BOYD  

Brown Lane. Brown Lane is one of those mystery ones. It is said to be named after a person named Brown who served in World War 2. If that is so it is Englishman Arthur Egerton Hall BROWNE living in Cordelia at the time of enlistment. He was a war casualty (May 1941). That would make it one of those streets that Council needs to rectify the spelling of.

Bruce Highway North/South. The Bruce Highway is named for former Queensland and federal politician, Henry Adam (Harry) Bruce. Bruce was the state minister for Works in the mid-1930s when the highway was named after him.

Burke Street. The street is named for Edward Lawrence Burke, Councillor, 1938-43 and 1946-55. He was a farmer and chairman of the Herbert River District Canegrowers' Executive for 20 years. He was on the organizing committee for Abergowrie College, involved in a campaign to develop the Abergowrie area and open it to solder settlement.

Sources:

A.S. Kemp, The Kemp Report

Australian War Memorial, personal service records

Bianka Vidonja Balanzategui. The Herbert River Story Emma Arthurs

Department of Veteran Affairs: World War Two Service Veteran Details

Family History of the District

Janice Wegner. Hinchinbrook: Hinchinbrook Shire Council 1879-1979.

John Alm. Early History

Les Pearson, The Hulls of "Cressbrook", Evelyn, Nort Queensland

Neale Brown

Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

Reflections of Our Century 1901-2001

The 'Town of Ingham’ notes in Roads and Place Names and Origins, Hinchinbrook Shire, Queensland (vertical file, Local History Room, Hinchinbrook Shire Library

TROVE

Wikipedia

 

"A" is for Alice, Alma and Anderssen - street naming in the Hinchinbrook Shire

 

In the Hinchinbrook Shire there are 608 roads/lanes/streets. When I started out on the project to discover the reason why each of those were named I didn’t anticipate the scale of the task I was taking on. While the reason for the naming of some were obvious, many were not and there were those that could only be guessed at or at worst not able to be explained at all.

Let’s take a look at those streets of HALIFAX that begin with the letter A.

The first land taken up for agricultural crops, including sugar, was in the low coastal reaches of the Herbert River. Because of the river’s length it was demarcated into two areas, upper and lower. The Lower Herbert’s major business centre became Halifax. Land along the lower Herbert that had been surveyed for a town selection was sold off in the 1881 ‘land rush’ for agriculture to small selectors who hoped to grow sugar cane. The few remaining blocks were later sold as township blocks but unfortunately in a flood the riverbank gave way and these blocks were washed into the river.

After that catastrophe, one of those who had purchased land in the ‘rush’ was August Anderssen who offered some of his land for sale as township allotments. Anderssen engaged a surveyor and auctioneer and a Government land auction was held in 1886 and so the town of Halifax was born, taking its name from the neighbouring Halifax Bay, which Captain Janes Cook had named in 1770. 

So, starting with A.

Firstly, we first have ACACIA ROAD. There are many roads and streets named for flora or fauna in the district and this is one of them. Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. More commonly this genus is known as acacia, mimosa, thorn tree or wattle.

ALICE STREET. The street was named for the mother of artist John Coburn. His mother Alice Biggs married Edgar Cockburn in Halifax in 1922. John was born in Ingham in 1925. Edgar was a bank accountant and so with his transfer to the Darling Downs, the family moved there. Edgar passed away in 1936, so Alice returned to Halifax to live with her mother Christina Biggs (nee Beatts).

Alice and her sister Jess opened a clothing store in Halifax and this business continued until Alice remarried in 1939 to Walter Beatts. They had two sons, Geoffrey and Barry.

Source: Herbert River Express September 1973

ALMA STREET was possibly named for Alma Uliana Anderssen, eighth child of August and Eva Anderssen (nee Johannesdotter). Alma married Charles Otto Randell in 1906 in Halifax. She died in Tully in 1928. Her parents, August and Eva, were pioneering small farmers.

ANDERSSEN STREET is named for August and Eva Anderssen who are variously described as Swedish or Norwegian because when they immigrated to Australia Sweden and Norway were a single political entity known as the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway (1814–1905). Foreign nations categorized Swedish and Norwegian citizens together, commonly referring to them in immigration records as Scandinavians. August was a carpenter and wheelwright who first worked for Arthur and Frank Neame of Macknade Plantation. He took up land in 1880 in lower Herbert.  His family home was called Riverview (the original house was relocated to become the Halifax Hotel). He was the inaugural chairman of the Herbert River Farmers' Association which was founded in 1882 to negotiate for small farmers to supply cane to Victoria Plantation Mill for crushing.

Terry Lyons, A little of the story of August Anderssen “The Father of Halifax”.

ARGAET STREET. Many streets are named for former Hinchinbrook Shire Councillors. Argaet Street was named for Joseph William Argaet who was a Hinchinbrook Shire Councillor from 1947 to 1955. He was born in Charters Towers and served in World War 1 on the Western Front as a Private with the 1st Australian Machine Gun Battalion. He returned to Australia in 1919 and came to the Hinchinbrook district in1920 as a locomotive driver at Macknade Mill. He was the President of the Halifax Australian Labour Party until he left the party and joined the Democratic Labour Party after the split in 1955. In that same year he took up farming at Abergowrie. The street name was approved in 1974.

Another instalment of Halifax streets and the origins of their names to follow!

Sources include:

‘John Coburn (1925 – 2006)’. Blog entry researched by Christopher and Vivienne Parry for blog Interpreting Ingham History.

HSC Box 195 Naming of Roads, Streets and Parks etc.

Terry Lyons, A little of the story of August Anderssen “The Father of Halifax”.

Janice Wegner, Hinchinbrook: A History of local government in the Hinchinbrook Shire, M.A. thesis, James Cook University of North Queensland, 1984.

Wikipedia