In 1924, the City of Brisbane Act was passed by the Queensland
Parliament, amalgamating the Cities of
Brisbane and
South Brisbane; the Towns of Hamilton,
Ithaca, Sandgate, Toowong,
Windsor and Wynnum; and the Shires of Balmoral, Belmont,
Coorparoo,
Enoggera, Kedron, Moggill, Sherwood, Stephens, Taringa,
Tingalpa, Toombul and Yeerongpilly to form the current City of
Greater Brisbane, now known simply as Brisbane City, in 1925. This
series of caches will celebrate these former local goverments and
their amalgamation.
The Belmont Divisional Board was formed in 1894 and become
Belmont Shire in 1903 before finally amalgamating with Brisbane
city in 1925.
This cache is located at one of the few remaining remnants of
Brisbane's tram system. Although the tram tracks here were actually
constructed by the Brisbane City Council in 1948, they follow the
same path of the original Belmont Stream Tramway constructed by the
Belmont Shire Council in 1912. More information is available on EPA
Qld's website: Old
Cleveland Road Tramway Tracks
Early in the twentieth century, Belmont was a sparsely
populated, 'outer' suburb of Brisbane, under the control of the
Belmont Shire Council. The area did not enjoy the services of the
Brisbane tramway network, to which the Belmont Council responded
with the construction of the Belmont (steam) Tramway, opened in May
1912. It was a narrow-gauge tramway track of 1067 mm, laid with 42
pound rails on timber sleepers. The line was operated by the
Railway Department with two return trips each day except Sundays.
This was later increased to three and four trains per day to
attract suburban growth. In 1922, the Belmont Shire Council lobbied
for a railway to Redland Bay to extend the Belmont Tramway. The
suggestion was rejected however, and the line was constructed via
Cleveland instead. The Belmont Shire Council did not have the
resources to continue the operation of the tramway, and the line
closed on 16 April 1924.
The cache also contains one of the four clues you will need to
find the final cache in this series, which will be listed when
enough of the series have been placed.