Major Edmund Lockyer and his brig Amity were central to the founding of the Ipswich district, and so I’ve travelled to Western Australia to a city that could easily be Ipswich’s twin. I told a version of this story on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

Amity brought the first settlers to Queensland which was to the original Moreton Bay penal settlement at Redcliffe in September 1824. There were about seventy people including soldiers and twenty-nine convicts.

The Amity is etched into Queensland’s subconsciousness – today there’s a township of Amity and Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island, there are six streets in Brisbane named Amity and another two on the Sunshine Coast, there’s an Amity Park, Amity Recreation Reserve and Amity Point Reserve.

Ipswich’s very own Thomas Welsby – he was one of the founders of Rugby in Queensland, Australian Rules in Queensland, the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron and The Royal Historical Society of Queensland – he even named a home of his after the brig Amity.

And now Major Edmund Lockyer, he was a British soldier and an early Australian explorer.

Lockyer was instructed by the New South Wales governor Sir Thomas Brisbane to go to the new Moreon Bay colony and lead an expedition to explore the upper reaches of the Brisbane River.

And so in September 1825, Lockyer sailed from Sydney, arrived in the district now known as Brisbane, and then travelled in a small boat up the river. He travelled about 150 miles upstream, which was twice as far as the explorer John Oxley had reached the year before.

Lockyer saw coal in deposits on the banks of the river at around the junction of the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers in the vicinity of Redbank Plains and Goodna, near present-day Ipswich. This was the first recorded identification of coal in Queensland. It was a really important find that was central to the establishment and survival of Ipswich and Queensland itself.

Major Lockyer’s discovery was massive. Ipswich coal mining began in 1843 and continued until 2019. By the early 1900s, Ipswich produced eighty percent of Queensland’s coal and employed over 1,000 workers. All up around 140 million tonnes was mined at a cumulative value of up towards $5 billion.

Today the Lockyer Creek, Lockyer Valley and Lockyer Valley Regional Council and more, are named after Major Lockyer.

Major Lockyer didn’t stop there. Which is why I travelled 4,000km from Ipswich, Queensland, to Albany, Western Australia, because Major Lockyer is commemorated there as well.

That’s because in late 1826, Lockyer led an expedition to claim Western Australia for the king. He sailed on Queensland’s own brig Amity, arriving at King George Sound, now Albany, on the 25th of December, with twenty soldiers and twenty-three convicts.  This was the beginning of the first settlement in Western Australia, and on the 21^st of January 1827, the flag was raised and a celebratory rifle salute fired by the troops.

Today there’s a suburb of Albany called Lockyer, a Major Lockyer memorial at Albany’s historic precinct which itself is a tribute to Lockyer, a plaque on the old town hall honours Lockyer, a commemorative Lockyer coin has been struck, and more.

So not only was Major Lockyer instrumental in establishing both Ipswich and Queensland with the discovery of coal, he also founded Albany and Western Australia itself.

In addition to that, the brig Amity brought the first soldiers and convicts to Queensland in 1824, two years later it did the same for Western Australia.

To commemorate that, there’s actually a full-size replica of the Amity in Albany overlooking the Princess Royal Harbour. It’s fascinating that a massive piece of Queensland history exists 4,000km away in Western Australia.

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

Photo credits:
Amity brig replica Albany Western Australia 2025 – Harold Peacock 20251018_063027.
Amity brig replica Albany Western Australia 2025 – Harold Peacock 20251018_104419.
Edmund Lockyer – Historical Albany website.
Major Lockyer plaque Old Albany Town Hall 2025 – Harold Peacock 20251016_165515.
Major Lockyer Albany 200 commemorative coin 2025 – Harold Peacock 20251018_120047.