Брисбеннің Ескі Жел Тірмісі: Тарих және Мұражайы

The Old Windmill is a heritage listed tower mill in Observatory Park adjacent to Wickham Park at 226 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built in the 1820s by convict labour in the Moreton Bay penal settlement and is the oldest surviving building in Queensland. Today it is the centrepiece of Observatory Park and a lookout over parts of the Brisbane CBD.

The oldest convict built structure surviving in Queensland, the windmill tower has accommodated a range of uses. Constructed in 1828 to process the wheat and corn crops of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, it had a treadmill attached for times when there was no wind but also as a tool for punishing convicts. The mill ceased grinding grain in 1845 and the treadmill was removed sometime before 1849. From 1855 the tower was reused as a signal station to communicate shipping news between the entrance of the Brisbane River and the town. Substantial renovations were made to it in 1861 including the installation of a time ball to assist in regulating clocks and watches. Twenty years later a cottage for the signalman was constructed to the immediate west of the tower, with a detached kitchen erected to the south two years after that. Both were later demolished. The windmill tower was used as a facility for early radio, telephony and television communications research from the 1920s and underwent substantial conservation work in the 1980s and 2009. By 1827, with a substantial crop to process, the settlement storekeeper recommended a treadmill be erected to grind the crop into flour. Commandant Patrick Logan indicated at this time that such a device at Brisbane town would be of service and also provide an avenue for the punishment of convicts.

On 3 July 1841 the windmill was the site of the first legal executions in Brisbane. The local Foreman of Public Works, Andrew Petrie, converted the disused structure into a gallows by running a beam out of the upper window to which was attached the nooses. The condemned were two Aboriginal men named Mullan (also known as Merridio) and Nungavil (also known as Neugavil), who had been convicted in Sydney of being accessories to the murder of Assistant Surveyor Granville Stapylton and one of his party near Mount Lindsay on 31 May 1840. After their conviction, Mullan and Nungavil were returned to Moreton Bay and hanged with about 100 Aboriginal people present, most of whom attended the funeral afterwards.

After the cessation of milling operations there were discussions about possible future use of Brisbane's windmill tower. In December 1849 the tower was put up for auction and bought by a government official who promptly sought tenders for removal of it and its machinery (the auction terms required it to be cleared away by three months after the sale).

From 1945 the Brisbane City Council was considering suitable action to preserve the tower, which had become a popular visitor attraction. Some restoration work was carried out in 1950 on the advice of Frank Costello (then Officer in Charge of Planning and Building with the City Council), which included removal of old render and re rendering the entire structure. It was at this time that the flagstaff was removed in preparation for making the open ground of the reserve "a real park". Certainly these conservation efforts considered the heritage value of the place as well as the public's use of it.

Circular in plan, the windmill tower is largely made of rendered stone and brick. It tapers towards the top where it is surmounted by an observation platform with an iron railing, hexagonal timber cabin or observation house, and time ball and timber mast. At its base the tower is approximately in diameter, reducing to about at the top. Excluding the time ball and its mast, it stands at about in height on Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill, overlooking the modern office towers of Brisbane's central business district. The tower occupies the western end of the reserve, with the reconstructed flagstaff in its eastern half. Surrounding these is lawn. The boundary on Wickham Terrace is formed by a low stone wall with regular stone piers, between which are strung single chain guards, and a garden bed behind. About half way along its length is a decorative iron archway and stone stairs leading up to a concrete path to the entrance door of the tower. The rear reserve boundary marked by a hedge adjoins that of the Spring Hill Reservoirs, the three gable roofs of which nestle below the park lawn. These are places flanked by parks, Wickham Park to the west and King Edward Park to the east. Opposite the windmill tower is the cylindrical Tower Mill Hotel, opened in c. 1968 deliberately referencing its form. undertaken in 1988 while the render was being replaced seems to show a series of slots that may have held supports for a reefing stage. Behind these were middle and inner hardwood lintels, the former having been replaced with steel hollow sections in 1996. A lip is created in the render surface at the first floor or reefing stage level. Above, below and around the upper ring of windows the render finish follows the simple stone frame. A single level observation house and platform surmount the tower with a riveted copper time ball and painted hardwood mast projecting above it.