Coopers Plains Origin Project Update
Heritage & Environment

Origin Project – incorporating the Dutch Houses

We are waiting on word from St David’s Neighbourhood Centre as to whether we will be auspiced for an application to Brisbane City Council’s Lord Mayor’s Better Suburb Grants. This is essential because our group is not a legal entity as such with a bank account. Once that assurance is given, the grant will apply for funds to cover expenses incurred by our plans to promote the area as the First Crossroad of Moreton Bay Penal Colony as part of this year’s Bicentenary of Queensland’s conception. That will include authoring the investigation into the ‘Cowper’s Convict Government Camp’ or ‘Hut’, its publication and presentation for education to the wider community, a cairn monument to be erected in the vicinity of the Hut, plaques around the suburb at historically significant locations (aided by our local Ward representative) and marketing material for our group. We need marketing material to, for example, hold an information stall at Oxley Creek Catchment Association’s Peaks to Point Family Day opening event this year on Sunday 21 July at the Oxley Creek Common.

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, we identified 4 McKoy Street, Coopers Plains as a much better Dutch House to set aside for public access in the form of a history cafe. Better, that is, than 9 Macdevitt Street where OCCA is currently housed. in the Cornerstone Living area. However, it is privately owned by small-time investors, which makes any possibility of public access very difficult. Therefore our strategy now is to call on City Council to place an information plaque in front of both Dutch Houses (at Macdevitt and McKoy Streets) describing their unique place in Brisbane’s public housing and migrant history. This will be pursued by the Coopers Plains History Group as part of the Origin Project.

Heritage and Environment

At our March meeting, my call to add Heritage and Environment as a subtitle to our group was approved. It now appears on our homepage.  It states that “We include heritage and environmental concerns in our critique of the past, present and future.” This brings our group’s interests and concerns into the modern era. It is fitting, also, that our first public information stall with proper marketing material will be at OCCA’s Family Day, which “invites catchment, bushcare, community, history and wildlife groups as well as local businesses that have a focus on environment to host an activity or have a stall.”

Neighbour Day

Sunday, March 31st saw our group attempt to host an information stall at Beryl Roberts Park as part of Relationships Australia’s Neighbour Day of Action. Local realtor, Smith & Li has promised us a banner and flyers, but unfortunately their printing machine ran out of ink. Mr Smith has promised to send out a promotional flyer throughout the suburb to give our group exposure. He has also promised to provide us with a pull-up banner showing our logo:

Events

Cooper Plains History Group Monthly Meeting
April 20^th Saturday at 4pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room (at the back)

All welcome. Please RSVP by commenting below (if the field isn’t there, click on this post’s heading and try again). Thanks to the friendly and helpful staff of the Coopers Plains Library for printing out these newsletters and offering them to anyone who wants to keep in touch without going online. The Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room is booked every 3^rd Saturday at 4pm for us to meet.

Changed Start Time – 10AM

Neighbour Day Sunday – 31st of March at Beryl Roberts Park

Apologies for the late notice, but our stall at the Neighbour Day tomorrow will begin at 10 am with Easter celebrations. It will go until 11am or longer, depending on numbers.

There will be a free sausage sizzle, Easter Egg bags for the kids and a prize for the best Bunny Ears on the day (a template was letterbox-dropped last week you can use if you want).

Coopers Plains History Group will have an exciting display and Fruitful Suburb will be there with produce to share. Please feel free to bring along your won and share it with the community.

The late notice is a result of the rain disrupting our plans. We look forward to see you tomorrow.

Neighbour Day Stall

We will meet at the usual time and place this month.

March 23^rd Saturday at 4pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room (at the back)

All welcome. Please RSVP by commenting below (if the field isn’t there, click on this post’s heading and try again). Thanks to the friendly and helpful staff of the Coopers Plains Library for printing out these newsletters and offering them to anyone who wants to keep in touch without going online. The Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room is booked every 3^rd Saturday at 4pm for us to meet.

Neighbour Day Stall – Sunday March 31st from 11am Beryl Roberts Park

Relationships Australia‘s big annual event is Neighbour Day which I have been hosting annually in Coopers Plains for about 6 years.  This year, local realtor Smith & Li is supporting the event to make it bigger than ever in Beryl Roberts Park.  They are very kindly providing our history group with marketing material – a poster and flyers – for us to promote our group at our own stall.  We need volunteers to mind the stall and answer inquiries.  Very simple really and a fun way to meet locals.  If you can help please either comment below, come to our meeting this Saturday.  Smith & Li are providing advertising, equipment and refreshments on the day.  There will be an Easter Egg Hunt for the kiddies, sausage sizzle, drinks and a Fruitful Suburbs sharing market where you can bring your excess garden produce or crafts to give away and take a morsel of what might suit your needs, for free. Bring a generous spirit (:>).

Our DL flyer:

Our Poster:

Letter to the Premier & Opposition Leader

The following letter was sent yesterday and 27 Brisbane history and cultural groups were included:

While a positive response is anticipated, a state government ePetition and paper petition will be launched, coordinated and promoted to give added impetus to the campaign. The petitions will close in November, after the state election in October.

Cooper Plains Origins Project
Dutch History Cafe Projects
More Local Support

We skipped last month’s meeting and this newsletter comes 2 weeks late due to personal reasons the Chair has had to endure. Project business stalled. Nonetheless, there have been some minor developments regarding external support, the Dutch Houses and the Convict Camp.

Parliament House and Lucinda Bar Tour

The small contingent of members and fans who joined the tour of Parliament were impressed and pleased with it. We learnt a lot and were proud to find our very own former President Beryl Roberts’ book He Made His Mark – Joshua Jeays enshrined in the foyer display cabinet. Thus so because he designed the building.

Coopers Plains Origin Project

No progress to report on this but I was giving my neighbour a little history tour down Musgrave Road when we noticed a carefully maintained pile of rocks next to the WaterEquip factory on Stable Swamp Creek.  This is uncannily close to the legendary Convict Camp ‘Hut’.  It’s surrounded by fencing but open to the public.  It could be just flood-mitigation.  If anyone can put us out of our mistery, please do.

Dutch House History Cafe Project

A small group of my neighbours are interested in supporting the history cafe project, so I took them for a tour and viewing of 9 Macdevitt Street and 4 McKoy Street. Their skills include carpentry, glazing, building, pizza-oven chef, barista, manicurist, accounting and computing. Between us, we can do this.

We collectively agreed that 4 McKoy Street is the superior candidate because of its prime location front, centre and overlooking the Cornerstone Living McKoy Park where there is some street parking. It is also in better condition and very original.

Local MP Peter Russo responded to our inquiry into the current ownership of the properties saying they did not belong to the Department of Housing. This isn’t particularly helpful because we know 9 Macdevitt Street is being sold by the developer back to the housing department; it probably hasn’t finalized. I made inquiries about 4 McKoy Street and it appears to be privately owned and rented.

Local support from Smith & Li

Real estate agent Jon Smith has kindly offered to provide us with some marketing materials. We will have a stall, banner and flyers ready to display at Neighbour Day in Beryl Roberts Park on Sunday 31^st around midday. Do come along.

Events

Cooper Plains History Group Monthly Meeting

March 23^rd Saturday at 4pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room (at the back)

All welcome. Please RSVP by commenting below (if the field isn’t there, click on this post’s heading and try again). Thanks to the friendly and helpful staff of the Coopers Plains Library for printing out these newsletters and offering them to anyone who wants to keep in touch without going online. The Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room is booked every 3^rd Saturday at 4pm for us to meet.

The CPHG February Meeting is cancelled.

The March meeting will held on Saturday 16th at 4pm at Coopers Plains Library meeting room.

Heritage & Environment
Cooper Plains Origins, Dutch History Cafe Projects
Parliament & Lucinda Bar Tour

This month includes thoughts on our group’s focus, an event and progress on the Convict Camp and Dutch House History Cafe projects.

Heritage and Environment

At last month’s meeting, I promised to provide an explanation to members of my proposal to broaden the group’s scope. I suggested our focus include not just the past, but the cultural dimensions of history and the ecosystems that affect how we live today. I think of the first part as heritage, or legacies. We are all a product of the actions of those that went before us. We are both blessed and burdened by them and we are responsible for how we manage these bequests and legacies and how we use them to inform our future actions.
In preserving our architecture and documenting the changes in our landscape, there is opportunity to leave a better environment for future generations. Future development should learn from and improve upon past experience, from indigenous knowledge to the mid-century Dutch Housing project. Development should incorporate existing robust and retrofittable buildings such as the Dutch Houses. What is not deemed salvageable can be replaced with higher density, better designed structures.
In July last year, I proposed – and the group agreed – to change the group’s name by dropping the word ‘Local’. There were various reasons for this, but one was brevity. To maintain this, I am now asking the group to agree to a subtitle to our branding – “Heritage and Environment”. More information is in a News post this month on our website entitled “Heritage and Environment”. Please send in your feedback by commenting on that news post or below (you may need to click this post’s heading to bring the comments field up).

Coopers Plains Origin Project and Dutch House History Cafe Project

Further progress towards the application for two grants is being made. CPHG will apply to the Lord Mayor’s Better Suburbs Community Facilities grant for funds so set up a Dutch House History Cafe. Another application is being prepared under the Community Support category to provide funds for the Coopers Plains Origin Project. This includes the work already done to locate Dr Cowpers’ Convict Camp which will be written up, published and presented in conjunction with the commemoration activities of Queensland’s Bicentenary this year. This, we hope, will also see more educational signage around our area and promote Coopers Plains as the “First Crossroad of the Moreton Bay Penal Colony”.  Possible auspicing organizations include St David’s Neighbourhood Centre and the Dutch Australia Cultural Centre.  CPHG has also taken a leading role in lobbying the state and local government to be more active in commemorating both Queensland’s origins and the Brisbane City Council’s amalgamation nearly 100 years ago.

Events

Parliament House and Lucinda Bar Tour

Date and Time: Friday February 9th at 4pm.
RSVPs for the event close on Monday 5th. Please see HERE for details.

Cooper Plains History Group Monthly Meeting

February 17th Saturday at 4pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room (at the back)

All welcome. Please RSVP by commenting below.  Thanks to the friendly and helpful staff of the Coopers Plains Library for printing out newsletters and offering them to anyone who wants to keep in touch without going online. The Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room is booked every 3rd Saturday at 4pm for us to meet.

by Simon Cole

Heritage and Environment

At last month’s meeting, I promised to provide an explanation to members of my proposal to broaden the group’s scope. I suggested our focus include not just the past, but the cultural dimensions of history and the ecosystems that affect how we live today. I think of the first part as heritage, or legacies. We are all a product of the actions of those that went before us. We are both blessed and burdened by them and we are responsible for how we manage these bequests and legacies and how we use them to inform our future actions.

History groups do invaluable work by preserving knowledge of the past. From this body of knowledge, we are free to decide for ourselves what lessons there are to learn.

What evidence is there that lessons from the past have been learnt? For example, here in southern Brisbane, the worst localized conflicts have been the Frontier Wars, and WW2. Are we in danger of repeating these tragedies?

When the world’s first country to industrialize met one of the oldest continuing pre-metallurgic cultures, relations were initially quite good. Official British intentions to establish good relations with the Aborigines were quite different to the Spanish conquistadors and other earlier expanding empires. Aborigines freely shared their catch with the colonists and likewise blankets and tomahawks were given to them as part of official provisions. (In Sydney, the local tribes-people loved having their hair cut and annoying nits removed.) Relations started deteriorating when the first (maize) crops ripened and the rights to harvest them led to disputes. Very different notions of cultivation and property led to conflict. Also, whereas one culture was stable and in a sense timeless, the other was intensely engaged in its ability to alter the environment and grow its presence.

Do we look upon and react to the frontiers of today differently to how our ancestors did upon theirs?

NASA’s Keplar telescope has found habitable planets in our galaxy. Are we interested in what life is there, what it might be like and what it tells us about how we originated? Or are we assuming it’s an opportunity to expand our presence and civilization? Can both be done successfully?

Current geopolitical tensions indicate we’re heading for another major showdown between super powers.

It seems to me the powers-that-be (PTB) have not learnt as much as they could from history. Nor, for that matter have wanna-be PTB, or elite aspirants. If they had, they would appreciate that the only constant is change and that although some form of growth is only natural, there are limits. Aboriginal culture remained relatively unchanged for so long because it was not at a crossroad of cultures on a fertile river plain at the right latitude. It was relatively isolated; a world of its own. They were inevitably going to ‘be discovered’ as the rest of the world grew more quickly.

It’s still growing… on a finite planet. International competition for resources and influence continues unabated. Growth, we are told, is good. And yet it seems that unless we redefine growth in qualitative rather than quantitative terms, we will run into trouble again.

In preserving our architecture and documenting the changes in our landscape, there is opportunity to leave a better environment for future generations. Future development should learn from and improve upon past experience from indigenous knowledge to the mid-century Dutch Housing project, to the Cornerstone Living project.

To take an example, developments like Cornerstone Living should to some extent incorporate existing robust and retrofitable buildings such as the Dutch Houses. They ought not be blithely knocked down when they still have much life left in them. Even though aspects of the Dutch Houses’ design is lacking (for their locale), there are people who love them and want to live in them. They can be retro-fitted for modern living. What is not deemed salvageable can be replaced with higher density and better designed structures. The Moorooka War Workers Cottages are lighter structures, but much loved and their owner-residents can modify them to extend their lifespan under Council’s character overlay, but since it’s ill-advized [sic] heritage restrictions (the Temporary Local Planning Instrument), residents have been in a sense imprisoned in substandard homes. Fortunately, the TLPI looks like it will be lifted. Town Planning Rebellion is a group leading the way in rethinking urban development in the context of an overcrowded and degrading world.

In July last year, I proposed – and the group agreed – to change the group’s name by dropping the word ‘Local’. There were various reasons for this, but one was brevity. To maintain this, I am now asking the group to agree to a subtitle to our branding – “Heritage and Environment”.

Please give your feedback by commenting below.

History Tour

Queensland Parliament House foundation stone was laid in 1865.
Lucinda Bar memorializes Premier Samuel Griffiths’ Lucinda paddle steamer, which has a unique place in the formation of our Commonwealth.

We will join the 4pm free public tour of Parliament and adjourn for cocktails at the Bar when it opens at 5:30pm, followed by dinner at Stranger’s Restaurant from 6pm. The tour ends at 4:30pm so I invited our local member Peter Russo to meet us while we wait for the bar to open, but he declined. However, we are hopeful another member – possibly even the opposition leader – will appear for us.
Date and Time: Friday February 9th at 4pm.
All visitors for tours should enter the parliamentary precinct via the Parliamentary Annexe Building, located on Alice Street (opposite William Street). Tours commence from the visitor information area located on the ground floor, inside the Annexe Building.
All visitors to Parliament House require government-issued photo identification.
If you intend to dine at Stranger’s Restaurant, please call and book: 3553 6386. Let them know you are with the Coopers Plains History Group and they will probably arrange a group table for us. The menu for Lucinda and Strangers’ can be seen here. I’m told no bookings are needed for the bar.
Please RSVP by Wednesday February 7th for the tour by commenting below (you may need to click the heading above to bring the comments field into view) or by texting a message to Simon 0405587988. We need to know numbers because there is a limit of 15 people on tour groups and it cannot be booked, so no more than 10 of us can join it. You may join us after the tour for cocktails and/or dining.

Monthly Meeting Tomorrow

January 20th Saturday at 4pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room (at the back)
All welcome. Please RSVP by commenting below. Agenda:

1. Heritage & Environment – proposed change of emphasis and name for CPHG up for discussion.
2. City & Qld centenary and bicentenary commemorations
3. Convict Camp
4. Dutch Houses

The Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room is booked every 3rd Saturday at 4pm for us to meet.

Dutch Houses Heritage Overlay & Video
Cowper’s Convict Camp Investigation Update
Heritage & Environment

The January newsletter comes a little late but with some enticing news.

Dutch Houses Heritage Overlay

Good news. After years of raising the profile of the Dutch Houses in Coopers Plains; the City Council has confirmed that it will protect ‘a pocket’ of the houses. Cr Adam Allan stated in a letter to Dr Neville Buch on the 1^st Dec, 2023, “I can advise that on 6 September 2022, Council decided to make a qualified state interest amendment to include over 230 proposed Local Heritage Places on the Heritage Overlay in Brisbane City Plan 2014 (City Plan). This proposed amendment included the addition of a number of ‘Dutch Houses’ in Sunnybank. It is expected that Council will be undertaking community consultation on the proposed amendment in 2024.” Where this pocket is, is a mystery. Whether it includes 9 Macdevitt Street, CPs – the prime example CPHG has ear-marked – is unknown. Members and interested people are encouraged to engage in the consultation process when it occurs. A notice will appear this newsletter.

Dutch Houses of Coopers Plains video on YouTube by WalkaboutWithRob

We are very fortunate to have as aspect of our area featured on YouTube by local history documentary maker, Robert Braiden. It’s called “Brisbane’s VANISHING Suburb!” As I write, it’s already had 32K views and 253 comments. My comment, in brief, stated: “Great job, Rob … there other were building projects like this contracted out to foreign companies – the French in Zillmere and Chermside, the Swedish in Acacia Ridge and Ipswich and the Italians in Carina and Toowoomba. There are about 40 of the Dutch Houses outside the Cornerstone Living development. Whilst there is much to be desired in both the old and new iterations of development, the best one can say is that foundation engineering has improved. For more information and a petition, go to …. https://equanimity.blog/dutch-house-community-gardens/.”

Cowper’s Convict Camp Investigation update

Further work by our mapping and geo-referencing expert, Adrian O’Connor suggests the convict station or “Hut” may have been a bit closer to the mythical Musgrave Road area as rumored by local folklore and handed down oral history. This map shows it at the 859 Beaudesert Rd “Fortuna” factory.Dr Buch has drafted a paper summarizing this work for presentation and publication in an appropriate journal. Watch this space for an event showcasing this research. In recognition of this work, A Coopers Plains History Group Research Fund will be set up and either a grant applied for or donations called for in a crowd-funding campaign.

Queensland Bicentenary and BCC Centenary Commemoration Planning

Last month I met with the full committee of the Brisbane History Group and presented my concerns about the apparent absence of any official plans to commemorate Brisbane City Council’s centenary. I presented a draft letter for them to submit to the Lord Mayor. The committee is of a like mind and will act at a time of their choosing.

Heritage and Environment

To me, history is not, as Peter Turchin (Cliodynamicist) says, ‘just one damn thing after another’. There are patterns and from them we can learn. Therefore, history is not just about preserving the past for the sake of it, it is about the present and the future. It is also entwined with culture and ethnicity which is better embraced by the term ‘heritage’. The important work of preserving the past overlaps, for me, into prudent resource use and sustainability. This matters on a continent and planet straining under the demands of 8 billion people. I propose that we rename this group the Coopers Plains Heritage and Environment Group. I ask you to consider this and send in your feedback. saimoncole@gmail.com

Events

Parliament House and Lucinda Cafe Tour

The Lucinda Care in Queensland’s parliament house is named for Premier Griffiths’ paddle boat that played an important role in the Federation of Australia’s colonies into the world’s first and still only ‘continent for a nation and a nation for a continent’. Come and enjoy a tour of Parliament and cocktails in the cafe where some relics of the boat are preserved. Details to be announced.

Cooper Plains History Group Monthly Meeting

January 20^th Saturday at 4pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room (at the back)

All welcome. Please RSVP by text to 0405587988. Thanks to the friendly and helpful staff of the Coopers Plains Library for printing out these newsletters and offering them to anyone who wants to keep in touch without going online. The Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room is booked every 3^rd Saturday at 4pm for us to meet.