When the Boggo Blog started back in 2010 I was rather excited when, after a few months of writing, the blog recorded over 300 monthly page views for the first time. Fast-forward to now, and the page-view stats over the last couple of months have been comfortably over fivefigures. It's a whole other level.
Each month has been better than the last through this year, and I've got a job on my hands maintaining this trajectory for 2013. However, judging by what people seem to be reading, the secret seems to be a case of writing about the bizarre, the unknown and the gruesome, with a good deal of mythbusting thrown in.
Here are the five most popular articles written over the last twelve months. These are not necessarily the most read this year, as some pre-2012 articles continue to attract a lot of attention, and this Top 5 list is based on the highest monthly averages rather than total number of reads in 2012.
Written in the wake of a federal senator's controversial comments about same-sex marriage rights possibly leading to calls for bestiality rights, this article looked at the history of bestiality laws in Queensland and some of the unfortunate individuals imprisoned for the crime. As interested as Boggo Blog readers seem to be in bestiality, I really don't see myself revisiting this subject any time soon.
This was back in February, when tours around the OUTSIDE of the Boggo Road walls were being run on Sunday market days and advertised in a way that gave the deliberate impression that visitors might get INSIDE the prison. Despite some pathetic bellyaching about this article from those responsible for the tours, we certainly had enough disappointed would-be visitors turn up to our market stall, with massive cameras around their necks, to warrant me writing it. Ironically, last week I met somebody who went on these tours and won't be going back now that the gaol is actually open inside because they felt that they had 'already done a tour there anyway'.
I don't think there is a town in the world without some local folklore about hidden tunnels beneath the streets there. Brisbane is no exception, and this article busted a few myths (and confirmed other rumours) about underground cells, tunnels to old prisons, or massive World War 2 equipment dumps. Having done a bit of exploring and research in this department over the years, it was good to pull some info out of forgotten folders and get it online.
Another myth-buster, this was designed to nip some new false assertions in the bud. These assertions were that (a) the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society wanted to run the old gaol on 'gold coin donations' (not true), and (b) the implication that the successful old prisons at Port Arthur and Fremantle are run by private businesses (again, not true). I'm always open to frank discussions about the future of Boggo Road, but sadly there's a been a bit too much of nonsense like this floating around this year. Some of it has been exposed on the Boggo Blog, but there is still more to come.
And the winner is... by a considerable margin, a little history of sharks killing dogs in the Brisbane River. I can only hope that some of the thousands of people who read this one had a family pet that no longer takes summer dips in the river, because the history in this story is long and bloody.
I must admit to being a little disappointed that my articles about tigers and bulls didn't quite make the Top 5, but here's some of those great pictures anyway:
Thanks to all the Boggo Blog readers for the best year yet. Sometimes it was a walk on the dark side, and sometimes we kicked heads, but it was always interesting for me (at least). I'd also like to give a special thanks to Liam Baker over at The Haunts of Brisbane for joining me in the trenches this year. Liam and I don't see eye-to-eye when it comes to things like the paranormal, but he shares my commitment to bringing you the TRUTHabout our favourite aspects of Brisbane and Queensland history.
I'm looking forward to another record-breaking year in 2013.Happy New Year!