Great Fire of Brisbane

About five years after the municipality of Brisbane was established in 1859, a fire destroyed a block of commercial and residential properties in the heart of the town's centre. Lacking a water supply, the voluntary fire brigade was limited in its ability to fight the fire. Its efforts were further hampered by inadequate equipment and the absence of policies outlining firefighting methods.

Better-constructed buildings replaced those at the December 1864 fire site, helping Brisbane separate itself from its penal colony beginnings and position itself as a modern commercial centre on the eve of the twentieth century. Its efforts to establish a sound firefighting operation lagged behind its building revitalisation program, but by the mid-1880s, it had formed a professional fire brigade.

Background

Brisbane has its origins in the Moreton Bay Penal Colony. The convict settlement was established in 1824 and operated until 1842. Free settlers then moved to the Moreton Bay area, and Brisbane Town became its centre. In 1859, Queensland separated from New South Wales and Brisbane was declared its capital.

As Brisbane transformed itself from a penal colony to a capital city, it faced many obstacles. It had no indoor plumbing, insufficient housing for its growing population, and many poorly built shacks and timber buildings that had once been part of the convict settlement. By 1864, some of these buildings were dilapidated and slated for destruction so more attractive and solidly constructed buildings could be built in the burgeoning town centre.

One of the earliest priorities of the newly formed Brisbane Municipal Council was to upgrade the town's water supply. The main source of water was a convict-built reservoir from which residents could fill containers for storage in tubs and hogsheads. In 1863, the government of Brisbane approved the construction of a waterworks to be built at Enoggera Creek. Work commenced in August 1864 and was completed in August 1866.

Another priority was fire prevention. Brisbane experienced its first major fire in October 1860. In both 1861 and 1864, the municipal council appealed to the government to authorise construction of new buildings, but its requests were denied. Instead, the government passed the Municipal Institutions Act of 1864, which declared specific areas of Brisbane first-class areas and barred the use of flammable materials on roofs and external walls within those areas. Fire-prevention measures were restricted to those first-class areas, which were located in the city's business district.

Firefighting was of less interest to the council, which viewed this activity as the responsibility of insurance companies rather than of the municipality. The first fire brigade had formed in 1860 but had not survived. Lacking support from the municipal council, four subsequent fire brigades also failed.

Additional fires followed, with three in 1864. In April 1864, a fire destroyed several buildings on Queen Street. This was followed by a fire in September 1864 and then the great fire of Brisbane in December of 1864.

Fire of December 1864

On 1 December 1864, a fire started in the cellar of a drapery shop on the corner of Queen and Albert Streets. A passer-by spotted the fire at 7:40 p.m. and raised an alarm by ringing the town's fire bell. While an eyewitness later reported that the initial fire was small and could have easily been put out with a few buckets of water, no one immediately attempted to douse the early flames. Within minutes, the fire spread. Fanned by a brisk wind, it engulfed the nearby tightly packed buildings, many of which were made of timber.

Several shop owners and bystanders attempted to salvage the burning buildings' contents. They broke windows and doors for entry—which provided oxygen for the fire to grow—and grabbed whatever they could and tossed items into the street. Within a short period of time, a crowd of thousands had formed and the streets were cluttered with materials. The goods and people hampered the firefighting efforts, and no one appeared to be in charge to direct the operation or control the crowd.

By the time people threw buckets of water on the flames, the fire was too large to be quenched by such efforts. Eventually, voluntary fire brigade arrived. Although it had a fire engine, it lacked pumped water to fight the fire. Instead, volunteers pulled flammable materials off buildings to slow the fire's progression. The fire was further slowed by several vacant blocks on Elizabeth Street. Troops from a nearby barracks also arrived on the scene and held back the observers.

By the time it went out, the fire had burned an area bordered by Albert, Queen, George, and Elizabeth Streets and destroyed about fifty houses and commercial buildings, including two banks, three hotels and four drapery shops. There were no deaths or major injuries, although four people went to hospital for minor injuries. The property loss was immense and was later reported as at least £60,000; some estimates were as high as £80,000–100,000.

No cause for the fire was ever determined. Theories about the cause included a dropped kerosene lamp, carelessly discarded matches by smokers and mice gnawing a box of wax vestas.

Impact

The burnt-out area was quickly re-developed with the construction of buildings made of brick and stone. New shops were built as well as a new town hall. Some people considered the fire beneficial. According to the Courier, some wealthy gentlemen appreciated the destruction of what they felt were unsightly buildings that had detracted from the town's image. In an editorial, one writer claimed that Brisbane's expanding trade could never have existed with the town's "old accommodations". The Courier also reported that most shopkeepers were covered by insurance and were able to rebuild without significant losses.

Despite the recoverable financial losses and benefits of gentrification, citizens renewed their calls for better fire prevention and firefighting measures. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, many citizens fruitlessly called on the municipal council to pass a ban on wooden buildings. The water supply issue was resolved with the completion of the Enoggera Creek Reservoir in 1866, but citizens debated plans, which went nowhere, on how to pump water to the town centre in the event of future fires. They also demanded the establishment of a more professional fire brigade. The government took little action until 1881. Brisbane then passed a Fire Brigades Act and established a Brisbane Fire Brigades Board. The following year, it formed the Brisbane Fire Brigade.

Bibliography

Calthorpe, Kevin D., et al. Brisbane on Fire: A History of Firefighting 1860–1925. K. Capell, 1997.

"1860—Fiery Beginnings." Queensland State Archives, 2 Mar. 2012, www.archives.qld.gov.au/Researchers/Exhibitions/QldFirsts/01-25/Pages/4.aspx. Accessed 2 Dec. 2016.

Fisher, Rod. Boosting Brisbane: Imprinting the Colonial Capital of Queensland. Boolarong P, 2009.

"The Great Fire in Brisbane (Abridged from Courier)." The Darlin Downs Gazette and General Advertiser, 8 Dec. 1864. Trove, National Library of Australia, trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75512347. Accessed 2 Dec. 2016.

"History." Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, State of Queensland (Queensland Fire and Emergency Services), 2016, www.qfes.qld.gov.au/about/Pages/History.aspx#Brisbane‗On‗Fire. Accessed 2 Dec. 2016.

Laverty, John Robert. The Making of a Metropolis: Brisbane, 1823–1925. Boolarong P / Brisbane History Group, 2009.

Melton, Charles. "Brisbane's Water Supply: The Queen Street Fire of 1864." Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, vol. 2, no. 5, 1935, pp. 202–7. Text Queensland, Centre for the Government of Queensland, www.textqueensland.com.au/item/article/3475df50d6d97b61ab22574bb2b47c7b. Accessed 2 Dec. 2016.

Richardson, Duncan. "The Great Fire of Brisbane in 1864." Ashgrove Historical Society, 6 July 2013, www.ashgrovehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/articles/46-the-great-fire-of-brisbane-in-1864. Web. 2 Dec. 2016.