ON the weekend of May 27, 2012, Judith Bligh along with eight cycling companions rode their bicycles from Brisbane to Bankfoot House in the Glasshouse Mountains to be welcomed by a large crowd, including then Governor of Queensland Penelope Wensley.
Judith was following in her grandmother’s ‘wheel tracks’ to help celebrate a remarkable cycling and climbing feat, exactly 100 years earlier. To also celebrate the cycling aspect, Brett Richardson independently rode his Penny-farthing bicycle from Brisbane. Brett was a teacher in Bicycle Mechanics at the Bracken Ridge TAFE.
On the Empire Day weekend in May 1912, Judith’s grandmother, Henrietta (Ettie) Clark, along with Ettie’s sister Lesley Jane (Ginny), their brother-in-law George Rowley and friend Willie Fraser set out by bicycle at 10am (Saturday May 25) from Brisbane to spend the weekend in the Glasshouse Mountains. Despite the roads being in a very bad state due to dry weather, they reached their destination at 5.15pm. A third sister, Sara, arrived during the evening by train.
The following day the climbing party successfully scaled Mt Tibrogargan and returned to Bankfoot House to enjoy the hospitality of good friends William and Clementina Burgess at Bankfoot House. Willie Fraser was Clementina’s nephew.
They aimed for an early start the next day (Monday) and were joined by a local, Jack Sairs, for the Coonowrin climb. Under the leadership of Willie Fraser the climbing party successfully reached the peak of the mountain also known as Crookneck. For sisters, Ettie, Ginny and Sara it is believed they were the first women to scale Mt Coonowrin, and followed Harry Mikalsen’s successful attempt two years earlier in 1910.
Exhausted but proud of their achievement the group returned to Bankfoot House for a hearty lunch before Ettie, Ginny, George and Willie mounted their bicycles and rode the 44 miles back home to Brisbane. They reached their home at 10.15pm.
(Note 1: The celebration of Queen Victoria’s birthday on May 24 was renamed Empire Day in 1903 after her death in 1901. It was celebrated throughout the British Empire culminating in fireworks and bonfires in the evening. The last celebration of Empire Day in Australia took place in 1958)
(Note 2: Sadly Willie Fraser was killed in France when shot down over Gommercourt on 25 October 1916. He was flying as a member of the 7th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps during WWI)
