Price's Gravel Pit

Price's Gravel Pit

Stage Number: MBSH.05.07.02

Group: Western

Local Study Area: Durack- Doolandella-Willawong-Pallara-Larapinta

Epoch: Early 20th Century

Street Address: Junction of Blunder and Bowhill roads, Durack

Latitude & Longitude: -27.58822222,152.98686111

Time Link: 1950

Map Link: 1951

Image Time Point: 1951

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Information

Brisbane’s roads – even main thoroughfares such as Ipswich Road – were narrow and generally comprised of dirt and gravel until the mid-20th century. There were many small sand and gravel pits in the region, and the Brisbane City Council hired local pits for material to maintain the roads. One of these pits was owned by William Henry Price, a butcher at Station Road, Oxley, who ran cattle on his land south of Ipswich Road (then known as The Blunder or Oxley South). His pit was on the corner of Blunder and Bowhill roads, on land now occupied by the Durack-Inala Bowls Club and ‘Delbridge Park’.

Gravel was particularly needed during World War II, when roads were made worse by countless military vehicles, and there was a council staff member at the Price gravel pits every day to keep records, and Price was paid 3d per cubic yard. The pit was still working in 1949, but later became a dump for years before the Bowls Club took over.

Citations

Vicki Mynott, 150 years: Richlands, Inala & neighbouring suburbs in Brisbane’s south west, Richlands, Inala &​ Suburbs History Group Inc., 2009.

Image Citations

Price’s gravel pit, Bowhill Road, 1949. Image: Lona Grantham (nee Price).

Map References

Qimagery. Greater Brisbane Area 1951. Scale: 1:16,000.