Anzac Avenue is a heritage-listed major arterial road lined with trees in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. It runs from Petrie to Redcliffe, with most of the route signed as state route 71. The route was formerly the main route to the Redcliffe peninsula, until the Hornibrook Bridge was opened in 1935.
Opened in 1925, Anzac Memorial Avenue (as it was originally named) is the longest World War I memorial avenue in Queensland and was the first bitumen motor road connecting Brisbane to the popular holiday resort of Redcliffe, and reflects the growth in car usage in the early 1920s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 5 February 2009.
The road provides the quickest access to the Peninsula Fair Shopping Centre, as well as being the main access road for the Redcliffe Hospital.
History
Early access to the Redcliffe peninsula The first road along the route was an Aboriginal track used to access Kippa Ring, then the site of a prominent bora ring located about north-west of Redcliffe.
Tom Petrie guided a picnic party to the Redcliffe seashore from Petrie (then known as North Pine) in 1859. A road from Bald Hills to Redcliffe was formed by the early 1860s, but by 1864 this was almost impassable. Tom Petrie marked a track from the Hays Inlet crossing and in the early 1870s assisted in surveying the road. Known as the "Brisbane Road" it became the primary way of accessing the Redcliffe Peninsula by road.
Redcliffe's growth as a seaside resort occurred from the late 1870s. In this era, frequenting seaside resorts became increasingly popular in Australia. Taking in sea air and bathing in saltwater were promoted for their health giving properties. From 1876 a weekly mail service began to Redcliffe via North Pine (Petrie) and a passenger and goods service to Brisbane was established by 1880. The opening of the Redcliffe Jetty in 1885 enabled people from Brisbane to visit in large numbers on steamers, bringing 10,000 passengers in 1889–1890. By the end of the 1880s, the Redcliffe Peninsula was the largest tourist resort area between Sandgate and Noosa Heads. Guest houses and hotels were built to cater to the burgeoning tourist trade.
By the turn of the century, coaches ran three times a week to North Pine. The poor condition of the road made the trip between Brisbane and Redcliffe difficult, impassable in wet weather. 1885 marked the first of many attempts to pressure the Queensland Government for a railway branch off the North Coast railway line. A potential route was surveyed in 1893, but various lobbying attempts up until 1915 were unsuccessful. By the start of the 1920s, a trip to Brisbane for Redcliffe residents was by road via Petrie or a boat/train connection from Sandgate, both long journeys of up to four hours.
Redcliffe's future prosperity depended on reducing its isolation from Brisbane. Its small permanent population grew little between 1900 and 1921. While large steamships brought thousands of people to the area, much of their time and money was spent onboard rather than locally. The growth in motor touring soon determined Redcliffe's linkage to Brisbane.
Memorial avenue
The loss of lives during World War I had a profound impact upon the Australian population and memorials became a prominent feature in communities throughout the nation. Monumental memorials were the most common expressions of remembrance. Memorials with a utilitarian function, such as a hospital or hall were also erected. This practical emphasis also extended to roads, often built with the aid of public subscriptions, additionally providing work for returned soldiers. Anzac Avenue is an example, as is Memorial Drive in Adelaide (1925) and the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (begun in 1918). Over 200 Avenues of Honour were planted along roads and in parks, a type of memorial found throughout Australia from 1917. Victoria planted more avenues than any other state. While "digger" statues were ubiquitous throughout Queensland, memorial avenues appeared to be less common.
Anzac Memorial Avenue was Queensland's largest construction of an avenue, an ambitious project achieved through public subscription. Most war memorials in Queensland towns and shires honoured servicemen from a specific area. Anzac Memorial Avenue had a wider memorial dedication, not only for residents of the Redcliffe and Petrie areas, but for Brisbane's population, whose support enabled the plantings to occur.
The early 1920s saw the beginnings of increasing car popularity in Queensland. The number of people driving cars between 1921 and 1923 more than doubled. Such considerable growth increased calls for adequate roads in both urban and rural areas, not only for economic purposes, but also as routes for motor tourists.
In response to these pressures, the Queensland government established the Main Roads Board in 1920. Prior to this, the onus was on local shire councils to fund road construction and management. They were largely unable to provide the finances or technical skills to respond to challenges posed by increased car use. After the Board's establishment, co-operative funding arrangements occurred with local councils, who largely maintained roads after their construction. The policy of the Main Roads Board was to construct roads that operated as feeders to railway networks and aided the development of newly settled and existing districts.
Prior to and after the Board's establishment, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) occupied a central role in advocating for better roads for Queensland motorists. Thomas James Rothwell, President of the RACQ from 1921 to 1923, was the key protagonist in establishing the Petrie to Redcliffe Anzac Memorial Avenue. From 1914, the RACQ allied itself to the war time effort, raising funds and holding numerous benefits. Rothwell, a successful men's outfitter in Brisbane, was actively involved in such causes. During the war, he was secretary of the Queensland Patriotic Fund and coordinator of the Returned Soldiers Transport Corps, eventually awarded an OBE for his services.
Rothwell's initial impetus in advocating for the road came from a referral of the Brisbane Motor Traders Association, who "desired one good road in the vicinity of Brisbane", for motor touring purposes. This push also coincided with the Returned Services League's public appeal of "Work Not Charity" in support of the large number of ex-soldiers unemployed at the time. Rothwell saw the opportunity for these causes to coalesce, by constructing a good road for motorists that would provide employment to returned servicemen. Planting an avenue of trees along such a road would also create a significant Queensland war memorial.
The declaration of Gympie Road as a main road in 1921 informed the decision to choose the Petrie-Redcliffe road for Rothwell's proposal. By designating the Petrie-Redcliffe route as a main road, Brisbane motorists would gain a high quality motoring road from the city to a seaside resort, while reducing Redcliffe's isolation.
On 21 June 1922, the RACQ presented the case for the road to Harry Coyne, the Queensland Minister for Lands. Coyne agreed the road would likely be gazetted as a main road on the undertaking that non-government capital would be raised to begin its initial construction, while also suggesting the name of "Anzac Memorial Avenue". The Anzac Avenue Memorial Committee was established with Rothwell as chairman. A fundraising figure of was set. This amount would provide for the wages of ex-servicemen employed on the road, while the Main Roads Board would bear the cost of construction materials.
Publicity for the fundraising appeal for the Anzac Memorial Avenue appeared in the Brisbane press on 1 July with the rationale for supporting the proposal:"Every motorist is interested in this scheme. It is surely worth at least 5 pounds to a motorist to have one good road. Every business man is interested. It is surely worth a good deal to relieve the labour market of its unemployed. Every citizen is interested. It is surely worth something to you to have a Memorial Avenue that will at once connect one of Brisbane's beauty spots and commemorate for all time the valour of our soldiers."As part of the public fundraising effort, a progress board was erected outside the premises of the Commonwealth Bank in Queen Street, Brisbane. A figure of a car moved forward in increments of 1000, towards the end goal of . 8 August was proclaimed as "Anzac Avenue Badge Day" with car badges sold to raise funds. Other events included social functions at Redcliffe. By December 1922, had been pledged by public subscription.
The target of received a significant boost through government funding. In July 1922, the Australian Government, announced a National Main Roads Policy, allocating money to the state's road building schemes on a 4/8 federal, 3/8 state, and 1/8 local government funding arrangement. The objective of the policy was to "develop and open up the country, and promote land settlement, and aid temporarily unemployed soldiers".
Through this funding, the Redcliffe road was allocated , a larger proportion of funding than any other of the first roads built under this funding agreement in Queensland. The combined public fundraising () and government contributions () meant that within six months of the appeal's inception, the goal of was close to being realised. Of the subscribed, a final amount of had been received by 1926, with the Main Roads Board making up the difference.
The route was officially gazetted as the "Redcliffe Road" on 21 October 1922. Anzac Memorial Avenue was one of the earliest examples of Main Roads Boards' involvement in facilitating car-driven tourism in Queensland. The Board promoted Anzac Memorial Avenue for its dual purpose, as a road to a seaside resort that offered health benefits from a change of climate and scenic beauty, while providing developmental opportunities for the area. Until improvements to the South Coast and North Coast roads, Anzac Memorial Avenue was the premier road to a tourist resort from Brisbane.
By December 1922, 25 returned servicemen had begun work on the road. By March 1923, this number had increased to 50. A number were engaged in clearing the road and undertaking associated earth works. Others were constructing reinforced concrete culverts and the bridge over Hayes Inlet, cutting and bending steel for the reinforcing bars and preparing timber for form work. Eleven men were working at the quarry within the Beerburrum Soldier Settlement to source road materials.
The importance of the avenue was underscored by the decision to seal the road. In the early 1920s, few roads throughout Queensland were sealed, especially outside of urban areas. Different materials were trialled by Main Roads to determine their suitability as a top metal surface to dress with tar and bitumen. Anzac Memorial Avenue featured the use of trachyte, a fine grained igneous volcanic rock sourced from the Beerburrum quarry.
Work included constructing culverts to cross over Hays Inlet and Saltwater Creek, and associated earthworks to provide a stable base for the roadway in the often low-lying areas that the route passed through.
In early 1923, Pine Rivers Shire Council and Redcliffe Town Council were granted control of the road's construction in their respective areas. Main Roads maintained responsibility for dressing the top surface with tar and bitumen, this process occurring through 1924 and 1925.