Brighton Road, photo taken, c1960, from the same vantage point as the 2023 photo (above). The photographer was out and about on a winter mid-morning, judging by the shadows, and maybe a Sunday, if the volume of traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular is any indication. There were less people and, by extension, less cars in those halcyon days when we rode our pushbikes to school and a University Education was free.
The population of Brisbane was approximately 600,000.
The First Lagoon, the expanse of water with blooming hyacinth, extended from Keogh St, adjacent to the Police Station, to Bowser Parade, the presence of which was a balm to the soul, not the Police station the lagoon. The pond that now remains requires an electric life support system (a pump to oxygenate the water) and it promotes only sadness for times past. The large building to the far right is the Sandgate Post Office, which has become The Post Office Hotel. Time and economies move on.
The shop to the left, on the corner of Fourth Avenue, is Lyons Men’s and Boy’s wear, formerly Barden and Lyons, now the Professionals Real Estate office.
Yes, there were clothing stores, including Bayard’s drapery at the far end of Brighton Rd adjacent to the Town Hall, and a shoe retailer, an electrical and white goods store and two major grocery and household items stores,
many butchers and not forgetting “Been there forever and having another sale” Russel’s haberdashery store, which has recently closed its doors…..forever.
In those idyllic times it was also, generally, just a short walk to your friendly Corner Store, where you could buy an ice cream, the vegetables for the evening meal and the morning or evening paper but that’s another story.

Them were the days.