We know quite a lot about what life was like for the adult residents of our bayside region in the past, but what about the children?
In some respects, life for young people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was similar: they went to school, they played with toys, they played sports. But some aspects of their childhood would be alien to children today. For example, childhood did not last as long then as it does now. School attendance was compulsory for children aged six to 12, after which some completed a few years of secondary education, but the majority of young people left school and went to work.
Play, Work, and Entertainment in a Bygone Era
Outside school hours, children did much as they do today: they played. Take the life of young Mark Davidson, born in 1900, the son of one of Sandgate’s doctors. In later years, Mark recalled his Sandgate childhood with considerable affection. He and his friend Eric Decker, a few years older than Mark, would take their bicycles on the ferry to explore Redcliffe, which he remembered as “a paradise for young fellows”. Mark and Eric built a canoe and, camouflaging it with mangrove branches, would paddle over to Hayes Inlet for duck shooting, with “only our heads and guns poked out from the branches”. Occasionally, they would camp there and fish all night. At the time, Mark was about 10 years old.
Non-homegrown entertainment was rare. There was the occasional excitement of a visit to Sandgate by the Matthews Bros circus, with its clowns, acrobats and performing animals. While this was fun for the children, it was just work for the young performers, such as Master Carl Matthews, whose “bareback riding and skilful riding acrobatic tricks … were, for a child, really remarkable.”
Organised games such as cricket and football were strictly for boys, although in 1895, there was held in Shorncliffe a “Novel Cricket Match”, in which eight boys, playing with their left hands only, took on “17 little girls”. The whole event “afforded great amusement” to the many spectators, not to mention delight at the sight of the “daintiness” of the “little figures with their hair streaming down their backs” as they made their runs.
When the Victoria Skating Rink opened in Moora Park in 1888, both boys and girls could enjoy many of the activities there, such as racing and fancy-dress carnivals as well as children’s parties.
After looking at childhood now and then, one thing I’m sure of: very few modern girls would enjoy swapping places with their female forebears.
[With thanks to the Sandgate Historical Museum (opening hours: Sunday and Wednesday, 9 am to 1.30 pm. Adults $5, Children $3, Membership $20/$30). Photograph: John Oxley Library, State Library of Qld, Neg No 68720]
Read more stories from the Sandgate Guide print magazine here:
- Bramble Buzz: Updates from the Community
- Podcast Review: It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton
- Organic Gardening in June
- Harry Potter Forest Experience Casts Spell on Brisbane
- Buying A New Computer
- Why the arts are important
- Tune In To Happiness
- Snapper Chrysophrys auratus
- Shining A Light on Community Art
- Local Rising Star Bound for Broadway
- Final Cheers for Beloved Brighton Hangout
- KSBA Photo Competition
- Former navy diver clears the way for others
- Take The Bloody Long Walk for Mito
