Monument to Alfred Thomas

This monument was in Queen's Park, Toowoomba. We were there for the Queensland Geocaching Spring Picnic. There's a plaque and inscription which reads:

This memorial commemorates Alfred Thomas, supervising engineer of the Southern and Western Railway in the 1870's. He and his family lived in Toowoomba and were highly respected and valued members of the community. In 1879, Alfred Thomas retired from Civil Service and in partnership with John Garget, built the railways south to Stanthorpe and west from Warwick. In August 1882 while returning by the "Morpeth" from Sydney, he fell overboard in Sydney Harbour and drowned. His body was returned to Toowoomba and he now lies buried in the Drayton Cemetery. The town was deeply shocked by the death of Alfred Thomas. A committee of citizens, headed by W.H. Groom, decided to build a permanent memorial for him. £100 was raised by public subscription and the stone obelisk including a drinking fountain was built by Mr. Walter Bruce, a local stonemason. Originally erected on the building alignment in the centre of Margaret Street, on the west side of Ruthven Street, it was shifted to this site in the Botanic Gardens early in the 1890's.

See where this picture was taken.

View all photos taken: Sunday, 15th October 2006, This photo: 12:47pm

Comments

  • Maki_C30D said:
    wonderful day for basking! beautiful shot!
  • David de Groot said:
    Bit too hot for me actually. In the shade the thermometer on the GPS said it was 33C. And I have the heat related headache now to go along with it... :(
  • Maki_C30D said:
    I hope you're feeling much better now;-)
  • flash of light said:
    What's 'geocaching'?

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    Seen on your photo stream. (?)
  • David de Groot said:
    I am indeed Maria - a good nights sleep does wonders :)


    Nelly, geocaching is a worldwide "sport" that involves people hiding things and posting their location on the internet, then others search for these hidden caches using a GPS. Usually you'll place a cache somewhere interesting. www.geocaching.com is the main site and clearing house for all things caching.
  • flash of light said:
    Had a good read and sounds quite interesting! Do you do this?

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    Seen in my recent comments. (?)
  • David de Groot said:
    I do indeed :)

    Nowhere near as much as some of the regular local cachers, but I've planted two myself, and found 35 so far.