Sandgate & District
Historical
Society & Museum
The Museum will be closed for the Holiday and
Festive Season
Close 3pm Wednesday 13 December 2023
Reopen 9am Wednesday 10 January 2024
What We Do
- Preserve the community’s memories
- Assist with enquiries into houses, families and local history
- Provide access to historical resources and publications
- Conduct regular morning teas, guided historical walks and history
- Sandgate & District Historical Society is a registered charity and relies on community support. We would be most appreciative if you should choose to make a tax-deductible donation. You can make a payment by card or cash at the museum or by direct debit.
BSB: 084 365 Account: 52 501 9521
(If you pay with direct debit, use your surname & initials as a reference)
Where We Are
150 Rainbow Street
SANDGATE Q Australia 4017
Opening times
Wed 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Sun 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Contact
(07) 3869 2283
info@sandgatemuseum.com.au
Executive and Committee – 2023
President: Ian Kulpa
Vice President: Katrina Tyler
Secretary: Barbara Bow
Treasurer: Marie Sinha
Committee Members:
Pattie Tancred
Absent: David Kerr & Mike Chamberlain
Vale Yvonne D’Arcy
With the passing of our Patron, Yvonne D’Arcy, on 12 September, the Historical Society lost one of its longest-serving and most steadfast members.
Yvonne joined the Historical Society in 1982, one of our earliest members and, over the years, one of the most enduring and dedicated. She participated in all aspects of the society’s activities, especially the fundraising street stalls.
She contributed generously to the museum’s holdings of material, particularly our photographic archive. In 2014 she very graciously consented to become the society’s patron.
The members and volunteers of the Sandgate Historical Society and Museum extend our deep condolences to Yvonne’s family. She will be greatly missed by us all.
Found in the Files
How do the little ones learn this now?
Do You Know?
If you viewed this scene from the photographer’s vantage point, what would you see now?
A Local Story
John Job Crew Bradfield, born in Sandgate in 1867, was known for his lead role in the design and construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney’s underground railway.
These projects were vital for the growth of this now large city. He started his life in Rainbow Street, Sandgate on two roods of land on the corner of Washington Street. His family moved to Ipswich where John attended North Ipswich State School and later he received a scholarship to Ipswich Grammar School. He studied at Sydney University and travelled overseas to study underground railways and long span-bridge construction in Europe and America in 1914.
After his work in Sydney he took on many Queensland projects. Planning and design work for the St Lucia site of the University of Queensland campus, consulting engineering work for the Story Bridge over the Brisbane River and advisory work for the Hornibrook Highway.
In 1940 when the Story Bridge was completed it was the seventh largest cantilever bridge in the world. With his vision for the future growth of Brisbane, the Story Bridge was built with six lanes.
Another of the visionary ideas of this talented engineer, but not realised, is the Bradfield Plan. He wanted to take the monsoonal waters pouring into far north Queensland rivers, pipe it across the Great Dividing Range, and direct it into Lake Eyre in the centre of the continent. In the time when Bradfield was sitting in his Sydney office dreaming of this scheme the bulldozer was still a novelty and yet now with satellite guided excavators his plan could be implemented.
People have wanted to honour Dr Bradfield by changing the name of Rainbow Street to Bradfield Street but he humbly asked that the name remain unchanged. However, Bradfield Street in Brighton is named after him.
Sponsors
