Exploring Toowoomba

No one is entirely sure what “toowoomba” meant in the language of the local Barumggam people. It may mean either ‘the swamp’; a variety of melon which grows on the banks of the swamp; or the reeds on the edge of the swamp. We used our time in this, the largest inland city in Queensland, to do some exploring. We must have criss-crossed it a few times as we moved from one attractiomn to the next

Just a short drive from the city’s CBD, the State heritage-listed Picnic Point Parklands provides panoramic views eastward to Table Top Mountain and the Lockyer Valley. On the highest point of these Picnic Point Parklands is a lookout area featuring a long, curved retaining wall that acts as a promenade on which you can enjoy the spectacular distant views and take some good photos. 

Our next stop was at the interesting Cobb + Co Museum which is part of the Queensland Museum Network. It is a large museum that includes an extensive display of insects and butterflies. It also houses the National Carriage Museum.

As I looked at each of the exhibits in the carriage museum, I tried to think what might be their modern equivalent. Some carriages like the Landau were for the wealthy or important people while vehicles like the sulky were used by the middle class. Poor people either walked or rode bicycles. Then there were farm carts, bullock wagons and drays. Horse drawn vehicles used in the city included a nightcart, butchers delivery cart and other small commercial vehicles.

At the centre of the stage were some original Cobb and Co coaches. These carried up to 14 passengers and were drawn by a team of either four or five horses.

Back in the CBD we drove a loop around Toowoomba’s Cultural and Legal Precinct. There is only a few historic buildings here and one of them was the old Post Office. This fine building was Toowoomba’s second post office, built in 1877 and designed by the Government Architect, Mr Stanley. The stone used was the beautiful, rich, creamy white sandstone quarried at nearby Murphy’s Creek. Over the years it has been greatly altered but the clock tower and the two storey gallery are original features of this imposing building. At the time of construction it cost £8,100.

The Toowoomba Courthouse is a heritage-listed building and is also known as the Old Toowoomba Courthouse. It is part of a larger site that also includes the remnants of the old Toowoomba Gaol wall. The building has served various purposes, including a courthouse, reformatory, museum, and boarding house. 

Outside these buildings I witnessed a man my age being hit by a car exiting quickly from one of the centre of the road  parking spaces. I was the only one nearby with a phone and it was up to me to call the police and ambulance, It was raher hard to give exact in formation when I wasn’t quite sure of the location myself. The emergency services came quickly, by which time some other people had helped him move to a safer place than the middle of the road. It turned out that he was largely OK other than being stunned and with some bruising to his legs.

Next, we drove to Queens Park and the Botanical Gardens. These are called the Queens Park Gardens, which include the Parterre Gardens, the Alfred Thomas Memorial, a Wollemi Pine, an Avenue of Canary Island Palms and fine examples of Queensland’s famous Bunya Pine, Kauri Pine and Bottle Tree.

From there, we crossed the city to see the Toowoomba Japanese Garden ‘Ju Raku En’ – translated from Japanese to mean “enjoying peace and longevity in a public place” – is renowned for its stunning representation of traditional Japanese landscape design. It is part of the University of Southern Queensland.

The garden’s central lake is home to ducks, turtles and fish and is crossed over by several vivid red traditional-style Japanese bridges, believed to ward off bad omens. The bridges extend to three ‘islands’ which showcase manicured gardens, ornate topiary plantings and other Japanese plants of interest. It also features a central lake, three separate ‘islands’ and tree groves. It was designed in Kyoto by a Japanese professor.

Our final stop was at the Mother’s`Memorial. This is on an historically significant site where military recruitment for World War One took place. It has been the location of Toowoomba’s ANZAC Day Commemoration since 1916. The site contains many small memorials and plaques for various units and sections of the military. One of them commemorates the WW1 25th Batallion that was formed by men from the Darling Downs Region. In WW2, the 2/25Batallion fought at Milne Bay in  New Guinea.

This large memorial was built by mothers to honour their soldier sons who did not return from World War One. After that war, one mother sold Sweet Violets to raise funds for its erection and these became commonly known as the Toowoomba Violet. For this reason, the Toowoomba City Council voted to change the species of violet used as the city’s floral emblem to the Sweet Violet.

The Mother’s Memorial  is one of very few war memorials commissioned by women and it is outstanding for its symbolism.