Key Stanthorpe events, 1954:
January 8
• Stanthorpe Show – Appeal To Orchardists, Make Fruit Display Worthy of District
January 12
• Flying Saucer – Object Seen in Stanthorpe, Seen by Harry Ludlow, Johnson Street.
January 19
• Flying Saucers Heard at Applethorpe
January 22
• Rev J.N. Lindsay Farewelled by Parishioners (Rector of St. Paul’s For 8 years)
February 2
Stanthorpe Apples – Sale Made to Gothic: “Iona Enterprises were advised by their Sydney agent last week that he had been successful in selling apples to the Gothic and these will be delivered when the ship arrives in Sydney with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on board tomorrow.“
• Royal Visit Plans – Welcome Arch Building: “A meeting of the Royal Visit Committee was held in the Shire Hall, Stanthorpe, on Thursday, January 28, when it was reported that work in connection with the building of the welcome arch was proceeding well and that details were still being awaited from the Railway Department in regard to Transport to Toowoomba. A cheer point has been allocated to Stanthorpe Shire in Margaret Street, not far from the Canberra Hotel.“
February 9
• Peaches for the Queen – Stanthorpe Show Exhibits: “The Champion Tray of peaches exhibited at the Stanthorpe Show last week is being sent to the Hotel Gollan, Lismore, where her Majesty The Queen will stay tonight. The peaches have been donated by Mr McLucas and will grace the Royal table tonight.“
February 12
• Royal Visit Train will carry only 356 passengers
• The Drought is Broken – Granite Belt Gets Good Rains: “Apple and grape crops will benefit. The drought is broken. The past year was one of the driest on record as only 17 inches were recorded as against an average rainfall of close to 30 inches.“
February 16
• Champion Peaches Delighted Queen: “The champion tray of peaches delighted Her Majesty The Queen, said Mr Frank. The Queen was so impressed with them that she ordered them to be repacked and taken with them to Sydney. Other fruit supplied to the Royal Gollan during the Royal Stay was the case of Delicious apples grown by A.B. Petzler and Sons of Eukey.“
• Fire At Amiens – Store Damaged
• Storm King Dam – Record Water Height: “As a result of the good rains this month, the level of water in Storm King Dam has reached a record height. Last Thursday morning, it was seven feet above the intake valve which was then one foot below the previous highest level.“
February 23
• Cyclonic Storm – Heavy Damage to Granite Belt – Apple Orchards Suffer from gale: “What is believed to be the worst cyclonic blow ever experienced on the Granite Belt on Friday night and Saturday has caused an enormous amount of damage to orchards. Huge quantities of apples have been blow to the ground while in some cases trees have been uprooted and limbs blown off. It has been estimated the loss will be in the vicinity of 100,000 bushels of apples. Grape Growers also suffered and so did vegetable growers who lost crops planted after the recent drought was broken. The really bright spot as far as Stanthorpe residents are concerned is that SKD has been filled to overflowing.“
• Storm King Dam – Full To Overflowing: “The cyclonic storm on Friday and Saturday poured heavy rain over the watershed which filled Storm Kind Dam with the result that it has filled and on Sunday water was running over the spillway to a depth of five inches. There is now 500,000,000 gallons of water in the dam and Stanthorpe’s water troubles can now be regarded as over.“
March 2
• Flood Victims – Generous Response to Appeal
• Royal Visit Arch: “The Royal Visit Arch erected in Margaret street near the foot of Queens Park, filled with fruit with the letter EIIR will be shown in coloured apples. ’Stanthorpe Rejoices To Honour Our Queen’ and ’Greetings from Stanthorpe’ expressed in no uncertain way the loyalty of this district. Transported to Toowoomba by Crisps Transport.“
March 5
• Royal Visit – Transport of Children: “150-200 children to be transported in trucks, the rest in private cars in two convoys.
Post Office is to be closed all day.“
March 12
• Thousands Travel to See the Queen; Welcome Arch Makes Good Impression: “The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were obviously very impressed with Stanthorpe’s Welcome Arch and looked hard at it both times they passed underneath. The first time they approached the arch, the Duke drew the attention of the Queen to some features of it and both examined it closely as they passes through it. After they passed, the Duke turned round and had another look at it. On the second occasion, the Duke was again seen to pass a remark and both had a good look at it. After they had passed through, the
Duke again turned around and had another look.“
April 2
• Dingo Fence – Decision by Graziers: “A discussion took place about the proposed dingo fence and it was decided to recommend it follow the boundary between Stanthorpe and Inglewood Shire.“
May 21
• Flying Saucer – Another Seen at Applethorpe
May 25
Stanthorpe Aerodrome – First Official Plane Landing: “Hundreds of residents of Stanthorpe and the surrounding district flocked to the new aerodrome on Thursday to witness the landing of a DC3 aeroplane owned by Queensland Airlines. It is estimated that fully 80 cars were there and about 300 people to see the landing.“
May 28
• Stanthorpe Post Office – New Telephone Exchange Opened
• Queensland Airlines – Air Service for Stanthorpe: “Qld Airlines will commence service from Brisbane to Sydney through Oakey and Stanthorpe on Tuesday, June 8. It will run three times a week and this will be on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
June 1.“
• RSL Club Rooms – Sir Raymond Huish Officially Opens
July 20
• Air Mail Service – Stanthorpe to Capitals: “The building of the aerodrome at Stanthorpe and the establishment of regular three services to Brisbane and Sydney will be followed next month by an airmail service to both centres and north Queensland.“
July 27
• Five Flights a Week – Stanthorpe to Brisbane: “Queensland Airlines announced that additional services using the Stanthorpe Aerodrome will commence on Monday, August 9, and will then run every Monday to Friday.“
August 3
• Mr. T.W. Walters – Promoted to Postmaster
August 10
• New Fire Station – Estimated Cost £12,000: “The Stanthorpe Fire Brigade Board has decided to go ahead with the building of a new fire station in Locke Street to the western side of Stanthorpe Motors. The estimated cost is £12,000. The new fire station will be a two-storey building and will have a residence for a fire officer upstairs.“
August 19
• Free Milk Scheme – Stanthorpe Area Schools: “Commonwealth Department of Health scheme to provide free milk to Stanthorpe, The Summit, Dalveen, Thulimbah, and Applethorpe.“
• The Summit Post Office – New Brick Building
September 14
• Hail Prevention – Rocket Tests to Continue – Growers Meeting Decision: “The Stanthorpe and District Hail Prevention Committee will carry on its experiments with rockets for fighting hail storms again this coming summer. It was decided to have six rocket posts, the same number as last year and to provide them with double the number of rockets. It was also announced 75 silver iodide rockets are being imported from France.“
September 28
• Officially Opened – The Summit Bowls Club
October 7
• Fire Brigade for Wallangarra: “Stanthorpe Fire Brigade is anxious to form a volunteer brigade at Wallangarra to fight fires in that town.“
November 18
• Dingo Barrier Fence – SEQ Move for Exclusion
November 25
• Iona Enterprises: “Cold store and packing house at Ballandean. A Branch of Iona Cold Store will be opened at Ballandean.“
• Sewerage Scheme – Preliminary Survey
November 30
• Dingo Barrier Fence Line Undecided
• Rockets and Hailstorms – storm cloud dispersed, success claimed at Wyberba
December 7
• Cinemascope – First Night At Arcadia – The Student Prince
December 9
• Further success claimed with hail rockets at “Tuck Hill“
December 14
• Presentation from Pozieres France – Unique Ceremony in Stanthorpe: “Recordings of function to be broadcast through the BBC French Service for the benefit of the French people. A unique and historic ceremony took place in the Rex Hall Stanthorpe on Saturday night when his Excellency the French Ambassador (M Louis Roche) handed over to Mr Harry Archibald a resident of Pozieres, a casket of earth from Pozieres in France where Australians won a great victory in July, 1916. The casket of the earth was presented to the Australian Ambassador (Sir Keith Officer) at Pozieres on Anzac Day in return for an Australian flag presented to the town to replace one that had been taken away during the German occupation in WWII. Sir Keith Officer was asked to have it presented to the town of Pozieres in Australia. As there is no town at Pozieres it was decided that the proper and most appropriate repository was Stanthorpe in the Club Rooms of the Returned Soldiers League.“
• Hail Storm Stopped – Another Rocket Success: “Three rockets fired into a storm over “Tuck Hill“, Broadwater.“
December 16
• Hailstorms and Rockets – Mixed Success yesterday – Damage to Amiens Orchards: “Over a dozen rockets were fired – the results are regarded as satisfactory by Hail Prevention Committee. Considerable damage was done in.“
December 23
• McGregor Park – Proposed Improvements
