Information

In the late nineteenth century, immediately below Ipswich Road, on the slope near what is now the Waldheim Street corner (but was merely track down to the Norman Creek), there was a football and cricket ground used by the townsfolk, and thus part of the early beginnings of the sporting culture in Australia. A small watercourse flowed from this primitive sports field across the School Reserve between the Junction Park head teacher’s residence and the early school building, and then down the slope to Cockerill’s Paddock. The land where the football and cricket ground existed belonged to William Stephen’s Waldheim estate. James Dempsey, years later, confirmed in his history that: “For years we used Mr. Stephens’s paddock for our first cricket grounds.” The reference likely dates the close of the playing field. The new Thompson Estate State School opened in 1891 and a new cricket pitch had been built on the school grounds by 1894. The new pitch was just across the Waldheim laneway a few yards from the old cricket ground.

Citations

James Joseph Dempsey. History of Junction Park State School: 1888-1933. R.G. Gillies & Co. Pty. Ltd., 149 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane. 1933. p. 8; Arbor Day. The Brisbane Courier. Thursday 3 May 1894, p. 2.

Image Citations

Map References

QSA. QSA Series ID 2043 City of Brisbane and Suburbs Maps – A1A Series. 74 chains to the inch. Queensland Census Districts. City and suburbs of Brisbane. Area within a radius of 5 and 10 miles. 74 chains to the inch. Government Engraving Office, Brisbane. 634515