"One of the most enticing spots within the Brisbane area was an immense jungle in the western portion of South Brisbane. It began at almost the spot where the Victoria Bridge now stands, and it followed the course of the river right away to Hill End, and along the whole length of what is now Montague Road. The jungle was a tangled mass of trees, vines, flowering creepers, staghorns, elkhorns, towering scrub palms, giant ferns and hundreds of other varieties of the fern family, beautiful and rare orchids, and the wild passion flower. While along the riverbank were the water lilies in thousands, and convolvulus of gorgeous hue... Parrots, blue pigeons and scrub turkeys could be seen in the rainforest itself, where the whip birds gave their distinctive call..."
Around present day Montague Road, men clearing the tangled rainforest sometimes came upon skeletons with rusting chains still riveted around their bones to tell a tale of some unfortunate convict who had made a dash for freedom, lived a few days in this tropical garden and then died there.
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