Old Windmill Observatory: The Tower Mill

The Old Windmill in Spring Hill wears a coat of white lime wash and stands as the oldest surviving building in Brisbane. Convicts built this tower in eighteen twenty-eight to grind grain for the Moreton Bay penal settlement. It failed almost immediately because the sails were poorly designed for local winds, so the authorities forced prisoners to turn the heavy grinding stones by hand instead. The mill eventually became a signal station for ships, and later, the site of Australia’s first television broadcast.