John Thomas Baxter, fisherman, was found drowned at the Corporation Jetty, Sandgate, on 26 March 1897. Newspapers recounting this sad demise reported that he was a veteran of the Royal Navy and the Crimean War and had prospected for gold in New Zealand, but it is Baxter, the “old identity of Sandgate” who interests us.
Born in Essex in 1834, Baxter first appeared in Sandgate’s annals as one of the earliest to acquire land in the new village and then as “John Baxter, Freeholder” on the electoral list of 1854. He established himself as a commercial fisherman and, by 1862, was proprietor of the eponymous oyster saloon on the banks of Cabbage Tree Creek. In time, he offered other services to the nascent holiday trade, including, as advertised in 1879, “Picnic Store and Refreshment Rooms. Oysters Fresh out of the Water. Horses Fed and Watered”. An added attraction, in 1874, was the “MONSTER FISH”, caught at Humpybong – a fearsome beast, weighing 300 kilograms, species undetermined – which he exhibited at the oyster saloon “to lovers of the curious passing that way”.
Controversies, Recognition and Legacy
Stalwart citizen of Sandgate though he was – his name appeared on the 1880 petition for the incorporation of the town of Sandgate – Baxter at one time excited the ire of the town’s licenced publicans for the unauthorised sale of porter (a kind of beer) at his “modest little hostelry”. A complaint to the Revenue Department, likely originating from peeved pub owners, resulted in a trifling fine of £1.
As well as publicans, Baxter incensed casual anglers. In 1893, a complainant, styling himself “Piscator”, wrote to the press accusing a “well-known fisherman of Sandgate” of spoiling “the pleasure of scores of anglers” by netting fish along the foreshore and in Cabbage Tree Creek contrary to regulations, resulting in recreational fishermen being deprived of a decent catch. Baxter riposted, pointing out that fish were scarce for everyone and that he, a professional, could neither supply local demand nor “make ends meet by a long way”.
Notwithstanding these grumbles, his enterprises – the saloon and his fishing and oyster catching businesses – thrived, and at the Exhibition of 1882 he was acknowledged with a medal for an entry of “a nice collection of smoked fish”, which the judges thought “would no doubt taste well when cooked.”
It was a sad irony that John Baxter, seafaring man and stalwart of the Sandgate fishing industry, met his end by drowning. The jetty that replaced the one where he died is now known as Baxter’s jetty, an appropriate memorial to one of Sandgate’s great characters.
With thanks to the Sandgate Historical Museum (opening hours: Sunday and Wednesday, 9am to 1.30pm. Adults $5, Children $3, Membership $20/$30).
Featured image: Baxter’s Oyster Saloon, Shorncliffe | Photograph: John Oxley Library, State Library of Qld, Neg No 89983
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