With all the excitement this week over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement, here’s one town’s Travis perspective through history. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.  

For three years 1900-1902, Mr Travers Goff lived in Ipswich with his young family. He was the manager of the Australian Joint Stock Bank at Ipswich and was on committees like the Ipswich School of Arts. He was the father of P.L. Travers who famously wrote Mary Poppins. But that’s TRAVERS not TRAVIS which has confused some people.

Going further back in history, in the 1860s there was F.W. Travis who was an oyster and spinach enthusiast in Ipswich.

Travis had accommodation and dining rooms including an oyster saloon on Brisbane Street right next to the Shamrock Hotel. He moved from Brisbane Street to East Street and added a coffee shop to the mix which served hot coffee at all hours, and so he was a man ahead of his time. In 1866, Travis leapt to the defence of locally grown spinach, especially a luxuriant version being grown in his own backyard, when it was compared to the New Zealand equivalent. Travis offered to send some spinach to the editor of Queensland Times to prove how good it really was.

But come forward in history to 1946 and that’s when I think the most interesting Travis in Ipswich history was in town.

Twenty-year-old Victor Travis escaped from Boggo Road gaol and evaded recapture by dressing in army uniform and living at the Redbank army camp.

Travis tried to contact his father in Ipswich, but the police were watching so that’s when he went to Redbank. While hiding out at the army camp, he had a shave, was given a haircut, and even popped out for lunch at a local café.

Two soldiers at the camp finally thought he looked suspicious and took him into the Ipswich police station, but they had no idea who he was. Travis was taken into custody by Constable Louis Platz who just a few years earlier made a name for himself when he leapt from a sidecar in Ipswich’s greatest ever police chase that lasted for over an hour.

When Travis faced the Ipswich court, he arrived barefoot, handcuffed, and still wearing army clothes. He even stopped and smiled for the photographers. He was sentenced to an extra one month in gaol for stealing, among other things, a pair of army underpants.

I know that Taylor Swift fans are probably saying that’s all good about Travis, but what about the Swift family in Ipswich. Well yes, there was a Samuel Swift who from the early 1880s was the licensee of the Railway Hotel and then the Bellevue Hotel in Ipswich, and he even served as a councillor on the Ipswich city council.

But I think the Travis Kelce line of research was more interesting. You see the escapee Travis was serving time in Boggo Road with some pretty notorious characters. He made his escape from prison along with the Holland Park taxi murderer, and Slim Halliday who was later the Southport taxi murderer and recently featured in the book and Netflix series ‘Boy Swallows Universe’.

Those two hardened criminals were recaptured after just four days, but our Travis remained free for two weeks by hiding in plain sight at the Redbank army camp, and I think that’s far more interesting.

But after all that, congratulations to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce on their engagement.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged, 2025 – Pop Crave.
Soldiers at Redbank Military Camp Ipswich, 1940 – State Library of Queensland.
Victor John Travis handcuffed, barefoot, and smiling entering Ipswich Police Court – Telegraph, Brisbane, 26th December 1946, page 1.
Mug shot of Arthur Ernest Halliday, 1952 – Queensland Police Museum.