The suburb of Goodna, located to the east of Ipswich, owes its beginnings to agriculture and pastoralism with many of the area’s early settlers and businesses working or serving in these areas. The name Goodna superseded the original name for the area, Woogaroo, in 1865 and the town steadily grew and developed with a hotel, church, post office and police station soon in place. By the 1880s Goodna was a well established community nearing a population of 500.
This photograph, taken in around 1883, shows the Law family’s house in Brisbane Terrace. We can speculate that the people we see standing in front of the buildings and in the carriage are members of the family, perhaps together with friends. It was clearly a special occasion with the women and children dressed to look their best.
To the left we have Law’s blacksmith shop, established in 1870 and still operating successfully when this photograph was taken, and for many years after. In the background, we see the Goodna School, also opened in 1870.
In the foreground, we see the as yet unsealed road, a far cry from the busy thoroughfare we have today.
You can peruse a list of collection items related to Goodna via our One Search catalogue.
Brian Randall, Queensland Places Coordinator, State Library of Queensland
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