‘Mixed bathing’ the order of the times?

One hundred years ago, Emu Park is running out of water and lady bathers have nowhere to change

A festive crowd gathers outside the Emu Park Railway Station in the 1910s. A steam locomotive appears in the background.

IT SEEMS drought conditions were as much a problem in the Central Queensland region 100 years ago as they are today.

A search of The Morning Bulletin's archives from 1919 revealed the following story from Thursday, December 11 in relation to water woes at Emu Park and the need for dressing rooms.

The peice was written by the Bulletin's Emu Park correspondent at the time.

"A considerable part of last week much anxiety was experienced with regard to the water supply.

The lagoon well was falling rapidly, and both the public pumps were out of order; but, after much inconvenience, the pumps were got into commission again, some folks allege at an excessive cost to the ratepayers.

The allegations may be born of spleen. The chief concern is that they are at work and doing their job well.

The two wells also are holding out splendidly, especially the one in Archer Street.

The weekend brought us light showers, not enough to satisfy our desires by any means, but still, what fell received a welcome.

There are no less than three separate proposals for the erection of public bathers' dressing rooms to the fore.

All are very much needed.

It is a great pity that Emu Park should be so sectional in its treatment of such matters.

Speaking in the main, each little knot of residents, when it comes to a matter of local improvements, will only support the effort at its own door.

Fortunately, there are many exceptions to this general rule, and among these exceptions the members of the Ladies' ­Improvement Auxiliary rank in front, as it is taking up every line of improvement which is suggested.

It has been working ­simultaneously on botanic reserve problems and solving road and bathing shed difficulties, and now it has plunged into the intricacies of jetty construction, all being matters of general concern.

The meetings of the association were resumed Monday last, with a fair attendance, the ladies from the western side of the hills mustering strongly in order to combat the proposal to remove the William Street ladies' dressing room nearer to Emu Point - a proposal which it would be futile and unjust to carry into effect.

If mixed bathing is to be the order of the times, then it is ­self-evident that an additional room is needed since the present one is fully utilised and, further, the resident sin that locality were chiefly instrumental in ­providing the half of the sum ­required to build the dressing room, and to take the structure from those who laboured to provide it, in order to bestow its advantages on someone else, is surely unjust in the extreme.

The men's room, which was washed away in the storms in the early part of 1917 has not yet been replaced, but a fund has been started for this purpose, with the ridiculous result that there are three opposition shows where there should be one fund, one canvasser, and one speedy result - the erection of these buildings before the season has passed."