Next chapter of the Riverside begins

Published on 19 March 2018

The development unveiled this weekend is the latest chapter in the long story of our Riverside. The banks of the Toonooba – which we have come to know as the Fitzroy – have been a site of significance to the Darumbal people for thousands of years, and this recent investment will ensure it remains a place for communities to gather and appreciate the wonders of the natural environment for years to come.

In many ways, the fact that Rockhampton exists at all in its modern form is because of the Riverside, or more specifically the river. When Charles and William Archer became the first Europeans to find the Fitzroy in 1853, they could see the potential in the landscape. Over the next fifty years, Rockhampton became a major port with goods, animals, and anything else a town needed to function travelling up and down the Fitzroy, loading and unloading their cargo at the bustling wharves which lined the riverbank.

A number of factors including World Wars, depressions, the growth of the railway, and the development of Port Alma, meant that this activity declined over the years. In 1955, Rockhampton’s Centenary Year, the Harbour Board gave their land on Quay Street to Rockhampton City Council. Although the river itself had offered leisure opportunities for a hundred years in the form of cruises, rowing - and even outdoor bathing enclosures - this gift marked the point that the banks of the river began to focus more on recreation than industry for the first time.

Many Rockhampton residents will have fond memories of swimming across to the YMCA building after school in the 1960s, and enjoying the café situated just next to it. As it was a popular lunch spot for journalists from The Morning Bulletin, employees of the café were known for having the latest news before it was even published. Over the years the Riverside has also been a place for people to create their own, highly personal history – meeting of future husbands and wives, proposals, Sunday morning strolls with new babes in prams: they have all happened here.

The horses and carts, the mariners, the harbour masters, the river wharves, the commotion and noise of a busy port may no longer be present, but they will always flow through our Region’s history. Residents and tourists alike will now be able to enjoy a wonderful collection of new 21st century facilities set between the stunning the Fitzroy River and the Smart Tech of Quay Street. A wander through this elegant space now sees children exploring the state of the art playground before cooling off in the water jet plaza, friends enjoying the manicured gardens and shaded amphitheatre, couples dining at the new Boathouse restaurant, and plenty in between.

The next chapter for our Riverside is now beginning, and it is shaping up to be one of the most exciting yet.

Information taken from Lorna McDonald’s Rockhampton: A History of City and District.

Photograph credit: 'From the Central Queensland collection, Rockhampton Regional Libraries'