Heritage Treasures of the Toowoomba Region 2013 6791801HeritageTreasuresOfTheToowoombaRegion2013 | Page 16

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Hand-Painted Wall Map of Toowoomba
Don Featherstone (1902-1984), a local artist and amateur
cinematographer, was an ambulance officer with the QATB in
Toowoomba from 1946 to 1960. Hampered in locating patients
by the lack of appropriate street directories, he initially painted
a large map of Toowoomba on a wall in the Brigade’s Herries
Street Headquarters (now demolished). He then painted a cloth
map, complete with a reference grid, a street index, and a
‘swing-arm’ to quickly locate addresses. This distinctive map,
featuring 600 streets, now hangs in the Ambulance Museum at
Highfields Pioneer Village.
C13 Arthur Postle: Pittsworth’s ‘Crimson Flash
C14 Tivoli Theatre, Clifton
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Arthur Benjamin Postle (1881-1965) was born on the family
farm at Springside, near Pittsworth, and educated at the local
school. In the decade before WWI Postle emerged as a world
champion short distance runner, defeating Australian, Irish,
English and South African contenders and being heralded as
‘The Mighty Postle’, although better known as ‘The Crimson
Flash’ from the colour of his uniform.
He was inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame
in 1985. Postle memorabilia are a featured collection in the
Pittsworth Pioneer Village.
The motion picture was the staple cheap entertainment in
most country towns from the 1920s to the coming of television
in the 1960s.
The Tivoli Picture Theatre, opened by local businessmen in
a renovated Rickert’s Hall in 1921, is typical of country cinemas.
It initially screened ‘silent’ movies with musical accompaniment
until E F Morton’s Clifton Picture Company introduced ‘talkies’ in
1931. It ceased operations in late 1980 but Ruth Hungerford still
hosts movie nights in the theatre.
Clifton township has been the location for several recent
Australian movies.
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