It’s been a while since I gave you a #QueerQldHistory lesson, so here’s a little thread about some gay bumsex in Brisbane in 1892.

No photographs survive of our two protagonists, so I’m going to use these pictures of Matthew McConaughey and the boy from Riverdale instead. Same age difference.

Brisbane in 1892 was a big colonial town. Queensland wasn’t yet a state and Australia wasn’t yet a country. There were 3 men for every 2 women—ripe conditions for the bumsex that follows.

Aboriginal people were driven from the town centre, with the closest camps in Musgrave Park (just beyond the buildings in this photo). Meanwhile, white Brisbanites were petitioning parliament to allow the slavery of Pacific Islanders to “relieve” the economic depression.

As it is today, Queen Street in 1892 was the main shopping destination for Brisbane locals. And Alfred Shaw and Co was the largest and most popular hardware store. (Hardware included furniture and crockery, as well as the usual Bunnings stuff.) THIS IS WHERE THE BUMSEX HAPPENED!

We do have a photo of the owner, Mr Alfred Shaw, and he’s a bit of a hottie. Sadly, Alfred was not involved in the bumsex. He did sex in the heterosexual way and fathered 12 children to 2 women.

Our first hero is James Anderson, known as Jimmy. Jimmy was 18 on the fateful day, but was 19 during the trial. Jimmy worked in the hardware store, giving fresh meaning to the term “customer service”.

Jimmy was a bit of a slut. He’d done this before. A lot. Quite a few of the other lads who worked at Alfred Shaw and Co had also been a bit loose with their virtue. Lots of sluts at Alfred Shaw and Co.

Our second hero is a farmer called Job (pronounced JOBE like the bible). Job Allen was married and lived on a smallish property in Oxley. He had ridden into town and visited the hardware store.

Job was 45. In the newspapers of the day, he was once referred to as “middle-aged” but three times described as “elderly”. As a 44-year-old man, I do not like this. Here is a photo of me youthfully not liking this.

The hardware store was a big one and the building ran from Queen Street to Adelaide Street. In the nearby laneway was an outhouse with three toilet cubicles. Two were for staff, and one was reserved for customers. This is the scene of the crime.

On the fateful day, Jimmy the shopboy was sitting in one of the staff cubicles. But like the rampant slut he was, he had the door wide open as he waited for company.

Job the farmer rocks up to the outhouse and goes into Jimmy’s cubicle.

Job is overheard by a witness saying, “Come on Jimmy, let me have it.”

If “it” means Jimmy’s hole, then Jimmy definitely lets him have it.

They fuck. Another shopboy, Oscar, hears them from his cubicle and peeps over to see what’s up.

What’s up is Job’s dick, fair up Jimmy’s shitter.

Oscar later tells the court that he saw Jimmy’s head over the toilet, with his trousers down to his knees as Job was fucking him.

This was not a first time for either man. Jimmy had been fucked by other customers in the outhouse. And Job had ridden into town and fucked other shopboys out the back of Alfred Shaw and Co.

Job finishes the job and exits the cubicle. As he leaves, he sees another shopboy called Arthur. Job thinks that Arthur is a bit of alright so he grabs for Arthur’s dick and says, “You should have been here long ago.” Job then goes on his way.

It is unknown if Arthur consented, but there were quite a number of shopboys who were in for a bit of a root. Among the lads of the hardware store, gay sex was called “Which end?” as in: ‘That bloke came in last week for a bit of “Which end?” with Jimmy.’

Both Jimmy and “elderly” Job are arrested and charged with sodomy. If found guilty, they face ten years of hard labour on the prison island of St Helena at the mouth of the Brisbane River. Both men are named in the newspapers of the day.

Four months after their arrest, both men are found not guilty and released.

In Australia, a “beat” is a place used for anonymous gay sex. Often public toilets, parks and beaches become known beats where men know that they can meet other men for sex.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_beat?wprov=sfti1

The staff toilet out the back of Alfred Shaw and Co hardware store is the first recorded beat in Queensland history thanks to the historic bumsex that Jimmy and Job has there.

The term “beat” was chosen for one of Brisbane’s earliest gay nightclubs opened in 1983–named for musical beats and for its place as a gay meeting point. The Beat is now Brisbane’s largest gay venue.

So that’s your gay history for the night. Huge respect to Yorick Smaal and Clive Moore who wrote about Jimmy and Job in academic texts and papers. And to the Trove digital newspaper collection, who revealed that Job was elderly.