Information

The annual Stephens Shire Show was one of a few similar events held around the partly-rural Brisbane shires until the 1920s. An agricultural and industrial ‘Peace Show’ was the first such event, and was held in a community hall on Dudley Street in 1919 to raise funds for a war memorial. The 1920 Stephens Shire Show was rain-hit but featured ‘flag races on horseback for school boys’, sulky and buggy turnouts, and dog and poultry events. A dog tram brought contestants in from North Quay. The hall hosted competitions in cooking, fine arts, ‘women’s industries’, horticulture and school work. During the following year, volunteers of the Stephens Shire Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Society worked to clear a 12-acre reserve of land for a new showground, close to the hall, the Ipswich Road tramline, and Fairfield railway. The first show there attracted over 1,000 visitors. The last (and eighth) show was held in 1926, shortly after Stephens Shire was amalgamated into the newly-formed Greater Brisbane, a time when suburban settlement was also increasing in the local area.

Citations

The Telegraph, 3 November 1919, 12 October 1920, 14 April 1921, 24 October 1921, 20 September 1926.

Image Citations

Stephens Show 1923

Map References

Qimagery. Brisbane 1936. Scale: 1:11,000.