Old Windmill, Brisbane

This stone tower on Wickham Terrace is the oldest surviving building in Brisbane, dating from 1828 when the settlement was still a penal colony. Built by convict labour as a windmill to grind grain, its sails proved unreliable, and prisoners were forced to power a treadmill instead in one of the harshest punishments of the era. Later it served as a signal station and an early experimental site for television broadcasting. Perched on a hill overlooking the city, the whitewashed tower is a rare physical link to Brisbane's convict beginnings,.