GALLERY: Looking back at Bourbong St through the years
A selection of images of Bourbong St from the 1800s to now.
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It’s Bundaberg’s main thoroughfare, but what hasn’t changed about Bourbong St is its still just as busy as years gone by.
While the busy arterial road may have changed in looks, there are still familiar landmarks standing today, such as the Bundaberg Post Office, which has been pictured since the late 1800s.
The busy street has also gone from a wide dirt road with horse-drawn carriages and wagons to bitumen with thousands of cars passing through each day.
While there are many stories behind how the street got its name, with the street in the past being called “Bourbon St”.
An excerpt from John Young Walker in the History of Bundaberg book from 1890 said the street name came from a chain of waterhole between Bundaberg and Rubyanna.
“Bourbon-street, the main thoroughfare and chief business resort, has no connection with the ex-Royal family of France, or with that variety of sugarcane; but is from ‘Boor-bung’ a chain of waterholes between the town and Rubyanna,” the excerpt said.
In Neville Rackemann’s Bundaberg – from Pioneers to Prosperity in 1992, it says the name of the street was left to the surveyors.
“It was assistant surveyor Edwards who preferred Aboriginal names,” the book said.
“The main thoroughfare was named Bourbong Street. Many people, especially senior citizens, are under the impression that up until the late 1930s the spelling had always been ‘Bourbon’; this is incorrect …
“Regardless of the spelling of Bundaberg’s main street, it is extremely doubtful whether it had anything to do with an Old French royal family or a variety of sugarcane.
In all probabilities the name is derived from an aboriginal word boorbung, the name for a chain of waterholes in the Rubyanna area.”
Take a look back at Bourbong Street’s streetscape through the years.
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