Could You Tie a Knot Like a Queenslander in the 1880S?

It’s easy to forget just how important rope was to everyday life in 19th-century Queensland.

On ships and wharves, farms and stations, and throughout construction and industry, rope was an essential part of getting things done.

And Brisbane even had its own rope-making industry.

FORSYTH’S ROPE WORKS

Forsyth’s Rope Works was established at East Brisbane in 1876 and became one of Queensland’s early viable secondary industries.

The works included a wharf and store on the Brisbane River, where raw materials including hemp from Manila and flax from New Zealand were brought in.

Brisbane City Council’s heritage records note that Forsyth’s was the only rope manufacturer operating in Queensland during the 19th century, with the business contributing to agriculture, industry and maritime trade.

So when we came across an intriguing Victorian book published just a few years later, it immediately caught our attention.

Knots, Ties and Splices, by Joseph Tom Burgess, was published in London in 1884.

Its full title describes it as a handbook for “seafarers, travellers, and all who use cordage”, and it covers an extraordinary range of practical ropework including knots, loops, bends, hitches, splices, lashings, moorings and ways of joining and securing ropes.

The first edition contained 185 illustrations, showing how the different knots and techniques were made.

Now, we can’t say that Queensland workers were sitting down with Burgess’s book and learning their knots from it. We’ve found no evidence of that.

But the book gives us a fascinating glimpse into a world where knowing how to handle rope was an important practical skill, one considered useful enough to document in remarkable detail.

And Queensland was certainly a place where those skills mattered.

IMAGINE THE 1880s…

Sailors working aboard vessels on the Brisbane River.

Wharf workers securing cargo and equipment.

Farmers and station workers using rope for everyday work.

Builders and tradesmen using ropes for lifting, securing and hauling.

And rope-makers producing the cordage that helped keep Queensland’s ships, farms and industries moving.

For people living and working in that world, a rope wasn’t simply a piece of cord.

Knowing which knot to use and knowing how to tie it properly could be a genuinely useful everyday skill.

And perhaps that’s what makes old books like this so fascinating.

They don’t just tell us what people knew.

They give us a glimpse of the practical skills that people considered important enough to write down, illustrate and preserve.

The original 1884 edition of Burgess’s book has survived and has been digitised, allowing us to explore those remarkable Victorian illustrations more than 140 years later.

And because the work was published in 1884, the digitised edition is now in the public domain.

You can explore the complete book for yourself here:

https://archive.org/details/cu31924014519940/page/n7/mode/2up

SO HERE’S OUR QUESTION…

How many of these knots could you still tie today?

And if a parent, grandparent, sailor, farmer or tradesman ever taught you an old-fashioned rope skill, we’d love to hear your story!

Maybe you even remember a particular knot by name.

Sources: Brisbane City Council, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Internet Archive, Open Library

B&W Rope Image - Steen Jepsen from Pixabay. Forsyth's rope works, East Brisbane 1937. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Neg 105445 - Public Domain All other images, Knots, Ties and Splices, by Joseph Tom Burgess - Public Domain